TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of handicrafts, carpet and tourism committee of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives Mr. Abdollah Bahrami believes by a good and wise planning, carpets and handicrafts can replace oil sales revenues in the country and reduce reliance on oil revenues.

Bahrami in a joint press conference with the managing director of Talfigh-e Honar Cooperatives Mr. Seyed Morteza Mortazavi highlighted major programs of the cooperative sector in the country in handicrafts industry and ways to reduce reliance on oil revenues.

Bahrami said that Iran’s sales of hand-woven carpets in the past two decades usually stood at $1.5 and over 2m carpet weavers were active in the country while the annual capacity for producing hand-woven carpets was around 6m square meters and it could earn the country $3b through exports of carpet.

He went on to say that lack of attention by the government and abundant problems for carpet-weavers caused Iran to lose its world stance and its forex revenues began to fall. He added that although Iran is full of designs and priceless treasury in diversity in designs, and over 6,000 educated people are involved in the carpet industry, exports and production of carpets are declining due to inattention and negligence.

He also criticized Iran’s Central Bank’s regulations for hand-woven carpet exporters, adding that it takes one year and exporters have to sell their forex in the NIMA system.

He went on to criticize the government for stopping the support of carpet weavers by cutting their insurance. He added that the government is not ready to pay its share of social welfare insurance and carpet weavers themselves have to pay the total money and most of them cannot afford them and leave the job.

Bahrami went on to say that in the past, the carpet industry was exempted from paying value-added tax because most of the hand-woven carpet producers from the lowest deciles of the society but today both sale and export have to pay 9 percent VAT.

He added that currently over one million people are active in the carpet industry and they can earn the country over $3b.

He said the value of hand-woven carpet last year stood at $420m but the figure has been only $30m in the first four months of the current year.

Bahrami noted that over 113,000 cooperatives for producing hand-woven carpets exist in the country and the number of weavers who are under social welfare insurance is unknown.

He admitted that the carpet industry has faced both domestic and international sanctions, adding that exports are done in rial but the raw material for weaving is bought based on free-market price.

Bahrami said that Germany, the UAE, South Africa, China, and Japan are the main destinations for Iran’s hand-woven carpets.

He reiterated that to boost the carpet industry, it needs financial facilities, adding that levying VAT on the carpet industry has increased the production cast.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Talfigh-e Honar Cooperatives Mr. Mortezavi said that most of the handicrafts in the country are produced in the houses and over 6100 workshops are active in the country and over 5,000 people are busy in the handicrafts industry.

He added that according to the statistics, the country exports one million barrel of oil per day and $6m enter into the treasury while by exporting 10,000 pieces of handicrafts, the country can earn the same amount of money.

He reiterated that over 180,000 pieces of handicrafts are produced in the country per day and each piece worth 200 to 400 euros.

Mortazavi added that the statistics show that handicrafts industry can earn 18 times more than what oil earns the country like India whose revenues from handicrafts are over billion dollars.

He said that Iran is the biggest hub of the handicrafts industry in West Asia and it can earn money equal to oil revenues in three years. Thus the country’s reliance on oil revenues will decrease by the time handicrafts production goes up.

He went on to say that currently Iran’s handicrafts are exported to European countries and Canada and soon a permanent exhibition for sales of Iranian handicrafts will be set up in Afghanistan, while the cooperative has programs to have a vast presence in Germany and Poland.