Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 9
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran produces less than 30 million square meters of hand-woven carpets annually, head of the National Union of Cooperatives of Iran's Carpet Manufacturers Abdollah Bahrami told the Young Journalists Club (YJC), Trend reports.
According to him, when compared to last year (March 21, 2018), Iran’s carpet weaving industry is currently facing a number of issues, even though the country used to produce about 76 million square meters of carpets annually for several years.
Bahrami added that $4.5 billion worth of Iranian hand-woven carpets have been exported over the past 2 years.
“Some 35 percent of Iranian carpets were exported to the US. The exports were halted after the US imposed sanctions on Iran,” he said.
Noting that there are many ways to deal with US sanctions, Bahrami said that domestic constraints greatly affect Iran's carpet industry.
"Forcing exporters to sell some of the currency gained from exports within the NIMA system within a specified period is one of these restrictions," he said.
Bahrami said that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) does not provide foreign currency at its official exchange rate for acquiring raw materials for carpet weaving for carpet producers, yet the sale of part of the currency earned from exports to the NIMA system is mandatory.
In Iran, the official exchange rate of $1 is 42,000 rials. The official exchange rate is used for the import of some essential products and raw materials.
NIMA is a system intended for the sale of a certain percentage of the foreign currency gained from export, in which the price of $1 is 113,329 rials. Meanwhile, the black market price of $1 is about 115,000-118,000 rials.