Iran boosts handmade carpet export markets

Iran has boosted its handmade carpet export markets and plans to further expand it, Tehran Times daily reported on Monday. The deputy director of Iran's National Carpet Center, Mojtaba Feizollahi, said Russia, Malaysia, South Africa and China, have emerged as the new markets for the country's carpet exports. The center is also planning for exporting carpets to other countries, including Qatar and the UAE, the report quoted Feizollahi as saying. To increase carpet sales, Iran's National Carpet Center will dispatch trade delegations to different countries and will establish commercial centers overseas, he said. Iran exported some 24.9 million euros of handmade carpets to the EU during the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, began on March 21, 2103, according to the report. Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and the UK were the main European importers of Iran's handmade carpets during the period. There is an estimated population of 1.2 million carpet weavers in Iran, producing carpets for domestic and international markets. Iranian handmade carpet production constitutes some 35 percent of the global carpet market share.