The director of the National Carpet Center stated that export of hand-woven carpets has increased 4.2 percent in the first three months of the Iranian calendar year (March 21 to June 21).
IRIB quoted Morteza Faraji as saying that according to Customs Administration's statistics, last spring $73 million worth of carpets were exported and the figure for this spring has boosted to $76 million.
Faraji noted tapping new markets and identifying the needs and production based on them as the main factors behind the boost.
He said that new export destinations of Iranian hand-woven carpets include Russia, China, Hong Kong and Lebanon.
In 2008, Iran's export of hand-woven carpets was $420 million.
In recent times Iranian carpets have come under fierce competition from other countries producing fakes of the original Iranian designs as well as genuine cheaper substitutes.