By: Mr Behnam Ghasemi — Kohan Textile Journal/Middle East Textile Journal
Despite Iran has not a developed textile and garment industry and face many economic problems, the machine made carpet industry has significant potential because of Iranian hand made carpet history and huge investment is done by the private sector in past 20 years.
Iran machine made carpet industry is very similar to its neighbour country Turkey, in terms of infrastructure, technology and Machinery but in the matter of export rate and access to the international markets, there is a big gap between them.
Turkey is the biggest manufacturer and exporter of all kind of machine made carpet in the world and Gaziantep City -Turkey is a powerful hub for this sector.
Turkey machine-made carpet export is more than 2.5 billion dollars per year whereas Iran has a smaller share of the global market around 400 million dollars per year.
There are two main reasons that Iranian machine made carpet manufacturers could not reach to international markets.
The first reason is the Iranian domestic market. As Iranians have a significant history of hand made carpet and in any Iranian home a piece of carpet can find, the domestic market always is so attractive with high demand and many carpet manufacturers in Iran only concentrate to cover orders from the local market and does not any long term plan for export.
The second reason can be the United States embargoes on Iran Economy which makes business and international money transaction so hard for Iranian companies. But in recent years due to dropping Iran national currency versus US dollar and economic depression, the Iranian machine made carpet manufacturers are so eager to export their products and increase their turnover.
There is more than 700 small and medium-size machine made carpet factory in Iran, mostly located in KASHAN city in – Isfahan Province. Some of the famous and international brands in Iran are Gheytaran Carpet, Setareh Kavir Carpet, Mashhad Carpet, Solomon carpet, Mashhad Ardehal Carpet …
In terms of technology, Iranian manufacturers use the latest carpet weaving and finishing machine in the world from well-known brands of textile machinery manufacturers like Vandewiele, Schonher, Bejimac, Sellers …that’s why Iran can weave and produce the best quality machine made carpet in the world in a vast variety such as 700 reeds, hand look, 1000 reeds, 1200 reeds, 1500 reeds, 1700 reeds and 2000 reeds with different carpet yarn like wool, Acrylic, polyester, polypropylene, bamboo and …
