Rising dollar in favor of handmade carpets
Although the increase in the dollar rate in various circles does not seem to be pleasant, the head of the Union of Handmade Carpet Sellers says that if the dollar price maintains its upward trend, it will benefit the carpet industry, because it will increase revenue.
Sayed Mojtaba Araghchi, referring to the situation in the foreign exchange market, said: About a month has passed since the increase in the dollar rate. He would receive three million and 600 thousand Tomans, while today this income reaches four million and 100 thousand Tomans.
While the benefits of temporarily raising the dollar rate are obvious, it can still provide an opportunity for monetary carpet activists to make more money, he said.
Al-Araqchi said that the costs for competitive production of carpets in Iran are high. We are distancing ourselves and there is not much left to compete with competitors such as India, China and Afghanistan.
The head of the union of hand-woven carpet sellers went on to say that Iran’s export market is now facing problems due to moving away from world markets at the time of sanctions or high production costs; Today, India has its share of Iran in the US market and it is practically impossible to compete in this field with very low prices offered by Indians.
He also pointed out that competition in all fields has not been taken away from Iranian carpets, and said: Carpet industry is an art-industry and it should be said that handmade carpets are Iranian art that still play the leading role in the world and there are still no serious competitors for it. There isn’t, but the global market is moving towards buying cheap goods, which we call commercial carpets, and in this regard, our competitiveness has been taken over by competitors such as Afghanistan and India.
Factors such as heavy taxes in the carpet industry have caused problems, because we see that both manufacturers and exporters of carpets enjoy tax exemptions, but in the meantime, sellers who are intermediaries between Producers and exporters have to pay heavy taxes, for many of which it is not economical to continue this work, because in 1393, the amount of taxes that sellers have to pay has increased tenfold.