Summary: Iran’s rivals have gained some success in their competition with the Persian carpet for Various reasons including:

1-The immigration of some Persian carpet weavers and designers to India and other countries following the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

2-The attention paid by Iran’s rivals to the taste and purchasing power of West European customers and supply of carpets in proportion to demand

3-The support extended by the governments of rival countries to carpet producers

4-The auction of fake Persian rugs arranged by rival countries

5-The emphasis on advertisement and marketing by rivals

6-The use of better raw materials in weaving carpets

Hand-woven products of rivals

Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, some Persian rug designers and weavers immigrated to other countries. In India, they set up carpet workshops and began to teach carpet weaving to rural children by modeling on Iranian motifs and designs.

One of the reasons for Iranian designs and motifs finding their way to China, India, Turkey, etc. was these immigrant carpet weavers. However one cannot for sure blame all problems on this group of immigrants and their workshop but they should be rather blamed for parts of the problems.

Rug weaving as an income generating occupation became a booming trade in India due to abundant cheap labor in that country because weaving carpets requires, besides raw materials, easily accessible cheap labor.

With the Chinese, Indian and other foreign weavers accessing Iranian deigns and motifs, imitating Persian Carpets became prevalent and producers of such carpets by increasing their production and supplying them to the market served to gradually push down the price of rugs. On the other hand, they offered their products in the name of Persian handmade rugto attract more customers.

Besides an increase in supply, a drop in demand for carpets on the world markets  particularly those in Europe, Has been effective in depressing the carpet market. However, despite the decrease in the value and volume of Persian rug exports to such glutted markets, the production and sale of carpets produced by other countries like Turkey, China and India has been on the rise.

Therefore one of the reasons the Persian hand knotted rug has fallen behind its rivals on the international market is the lack of attention to the taste of consumers.

Iranian carpet producers increased their production day by day without taking into consideration the taste of consumers on various markets whereas producers in other countries such as Turkey have woven and offered to markets their carpets on the basis of the taste of the final consumers in recent year. This has caused their products to be warmly welcomed by consumers, further pushing down Iran’s share of world markets.

Among other reasons for the success gained by the rivals of the Persian rug in recent years has been the support extended by the governments of rival countries to their carpet Producers.

In Iran, there is yet no single organization in charge of Rugs and its related issues. The laws and regulations on export of carpets do not last long and the restrictions imposed on exporters like the foreign exchange accord requirement have turned carpet smuggling into a booming trade, thus inflicting heavy losses on the real exporters of carpets.

This is because the exporters are unable to stabilizes the price of carpets and with frequent decreases in the prices, the foreign consumers further lose their trust in the Persian Carpet.

In some countries like China, the government has assigned a center to determine to what extent the government should support Carpet producers and exporters by assessing the status of the market. Such centers limit their support for the exporters when the market is bullish but support carpet exports though various incentives (facilitating carpet exports, changing customs tariffs and taxes) When the market is sluggish. Unfortunately such centers don’t exist in Iran.

Unreal auctions of carpets is another factor for the success of Iran’s rivals. They gather large number of fake Persian handmade rugs and put a few Original carpets among them, offering them at prices lower than genuine Persian carpets and further pushing down the prices of handmade Persian rugs.

While effective incentive are offered in other countries to boost carpet export, the existence of unnecessary regulations in Iran on export of goods particularly carpets is helping further depress the carpet market and export in the country.

Some countries like India by becoming a member in the world’s major trade institutions (general Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or GATT in the past and in the World Trade Organization at Present) enjoy special advantages in their carpet exports such as export of textile products by the developing countries to the developed states particularly Europe, Thus accessing markets more easily.

Advertisement and marketing is among the issues to which Persian carpet exporters pay little attention whereas our rivals especially Turkey through effective marketing activities have managed to increase their share of markets. This increase in share is obvious in the export values of our rivals particularly Turkey.

Participation in  international hand knotted rugs and setting up of beautifully decorated stalls coupled with accurate and sound marketing have been effective in the success of the rivals in recent years while Iranian pavilions are more like carpet packed warehouse and the marketing and advertisement activities of Iranian exporters are not at an acceptable level

What are the solutions?

It is of great importance to pay attention to this fact that about 10 million population earn their living through production and sale of rugs. Either directly or indirectly.

Therefore, ignoring the foreign exchange incomes from the carpet exports under the present economic conditions of Iran, is by no means beneficial ( to people or the country).

On the contrary, by boosting carpet exports, the country can ensure the employment of millions of people. In order to overcome the rivals and get a share of the world carpet market, it is necessary for Iran to lift the existing obstacles and remove the shortcomings.