London, England, July 18--The greatest challenge to the Persian carpet industry is the high prices of hand-woven rugs, which have reduced the national industry’s competition power at the international level, said a senior official, according to IranMania.
Feizollah Arab-Sorkhi, who heads The National Iranian Carpet Center, told ISNA that the increase in prices of Persian carpets has even created problems at home.
He said high wages and non-organized production have led to a hike in prices of Persian carpets.
Noting that some 25 percent of the carpets offered on the international markets are imitations of Persian carpets, the official said China mostly uses its own designs while others try to carbon copy Persian carpets.
"One major problem is that some 95 percent of Persian carpets exported to international markets are produced in residential units," he said.
An expert on carpet affairs said earlier that Pakistan has taken full advantage of poor state support for the industry in Iran to imitate the designs of Persian carpets and export them to international markets.
Roqayyieh Almasi, a member of Scientific Association of Persian Carpet, told ISNA that Pakistani weavers make use of Iranian designs. "They weave Persian carpets and then export them under (world-famous) Iranian brands such as Haris, Afshar, Kashan, Kerman, etc.," she said, adding that poor support by the Iranian government has discouraged high-quality carpet production in Iran.
As Persian carpet production continues to decline, labor costs have gone up drastically, posing a serious threat to the future of the once thriving industry.
China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Turkey are Iran’s major rivals in the carpet industry.
