TEHRAN, Iran, Oct. 25
Trend:
Iran's handmade carpet industry is facing problems in export operations in terms of returning foreign currency revenues, member of Iran's Parliament carpet and handicrafts committee Masoumeh Aghapour Alishahi told Trend in an interview.
"A meeting was recently held between the head of Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran and the head of Iran National Carpet Center to address the issue. After the sanctions [were imposed], we lost the US market; however, there are other markets for Iran's carpets," Alishahi added.
"Currently, there are serious problems in carpet exports that need to be resolved. Iranian carpet industry faces export issues alongside domestic problems. If the management improves, most of the problems will be solved," the MP said.
"I have suggested to the Iran National Carpet Center to create conditions, in cooperation with Customs Administration and Ministry of Economic Affair and Finance, to liberate imports of second-hand carpets to the country, since there are many damaged carpets that require repair in the country," Alishahi indicated.
"While the carpet imports to Iran is banned, Turkey has allowed the import; 20,000 carpet repair experts from Iran moved to Turkey, which brought benefits to the country and helped it to create considerable market," she said.
"One of the issues in the field of carpet exports is foreign exchange treaty that are being followed to solve the challenges in this issue. The treaty provides three to six months deadline to exporters to return revenues. I believe it should be extended to 18 months, as it's not easy to sell a carpet in three months abroad. There should be conditions for the businessmen to sell the Iranian carpet and transfer the foreign currency revenue back to Iran," the MP said.
"While many officials and investors are encouraging non-oil exports, the infrastructure in this field is not ready. For example, transfer of foreign currency revenue is a problem, so how can an investor be inspired to export? The solution is in hands of economic officials to address the challenges," she added.
Alishahi went on to say that today, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the country's main competitors, while previously Iran dominated global market.
"We also failed to define an international brand for Iranian carpet and we have just begun to draft certificate for our carpets," the MP noted.