Tabriz is transforming Iran’s handmade carpet industry
With the establishment of the specialized center for international trade of Iranian handmade carpets in the city of Tabriz, this city will become a great hub for the prosperity of the Iranian handmade carpet industry in the world.
The city of Tabriz will become the center of international trade of Iranian handmade carpets in the next few years, and this issue will occur with the efforts of Shahr Aftab Kish Company and for the first time, a large specialized center in Tabriz called International Trade Center of Iranian handmade carpets – Tabriz It is under construction that in this report we seek to describe this broad plan:
Iran is one of the major hubs for the production of handmade carpets in the world and East Azerbaijan province is the most artistic and durable producer of these carpets and is one of the leaders in this industry by playing a significant role in Iran; Of the $ 600 million to $ 700 million worth of hand-woven carpets exported, about 40 percent comes from East Azerbaijan Province.
But handmade carpets have been witnessing a sharp decline for several years due to reasons such as sanctions, rising prices of raw materials, the devaluation of the rial, etc., and this downward trend for this ancient Iranian art continues.
All these issues prompted Shahr-e Aftab Company to try to create a center for the international trade of Iranian hand-woven carpets and to revitalize the body of this valuable industry.
Nasser Vaseghi, an investor in the International Handicraft Carpet Trade Center of Iran, said regarding the establishment of this specialized center: About 10, 12 years ago, with the problems that arose for Iranian handmade carpets, the industry began to decline, so that At present, about $ 350 million of export revenue of handmade carpets is limited.
He added: With the decline in the export of handmade carpets, millions of people have lost their jobs in this field, and this issue has been on my mind for years and forced us to enter into a large-scale work in the field of handmade carpets.
Referring to the traditional method of buying and selling handmade carpets, Vaseghi said: Unfortunately, in the 21st century, carpets are produced and sold in the same model as a few hundred years ago, which is unusual and needs to be changed.
He pointed out: Is it possible to sell a product without proper advertising in the age of communication and we see this issue in the field of handmade carpets that unfortunately there is no advertising to sell manufacturers’ products and we have a terrible problem of destroying handmade carpets and the emergence of strong competitors In this regard, Iranian handmade carpets are declining day by day.
Vaseghi offered a solution to eliminate the problem of the decline of Iranian handmade carpets and said: The first thing we need to do is to concentrate different carpet manufacturers in one big place and by presenting our plans, we can within three years , Return all carpet weavers to the back of the rugs.
The investor of the Iranian Handmade Carpet International Trade Center, regarding the reason for choosing the city of Tabriz to implement this great national project, said: In 2004, we considered various options for creating a specialized center for Iranian handmade carpets; But considering that the place of carpets has been in Tabriz since ancient times and all the greats in this field are of Tabriz origin, we finally decided to establish this specialized center in the city of Tabriz.
He added:In the same year, we proposed the creation of a specialized center for handmade carpets to the municipality of Tabriz, which was welcomed by the officials of the time, and finally in early 2012, we managed to obtain a license to build this center.
Explaining the working procedure of Iran-Tabriz International Handmade Carpet Trade Center, Vaseghi said: We intend to create a big website for this center and concentrate all the big carpet traders in one place and display their products on that website so that buyers can They can easily choose the carpet they want and even the export terminal of handmade carpets will be in this place so that there will be no problem for the buyers regarding customs and transportation.
He said about the large building of the center of handmade carpet trade: the building of this center has 85,000 meters of infrastructure and 10,000 meters of space and will be built on 9 floors with a wide range of facilities, including various commercial offices, seminar halls and halls, restaurants, parking lots. Warehouse etc. are included in this place.
Vaseghi stated that the physical progress of this building is about 30% and added: within the next three years, three floors of the building will start operating and within the next two years, the whole complex will be put into operation; Of course, this building only has the role of a hardware, and more importantly, it is the idea that has been considered in creating this center to promote Iranian handmade carpets.
Regarding other services provided to buyers, he said: The auction hall is intended for this center to sell different carpets of the world and we also want to install tourist tours for buyers and we can easily have one million buyers from all over Iran. To the beautiful city of Tabriz, which will boost the tourism industry in this city.
The investor of Iran International Handmade Carpet Trade Center mentioned the instability of the price of handmade carpets as one of the problems of the decline of this industry and noted: Iranian people always feel distrust in carpet prices and with the opening of this project, competition will be created among sellers. Makes prices more reasonable.