Quarterly Scientific-Research Goljaam

The Textile Museum & The International Hajji Baba Club
Washington D.C. June 19, 2004

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Introduction
Handmade carpet production in Iran goes back to the history, of which is not the subject of this short paper and presentation. Carpet production and in general carpet culture especially in rural areas is combined and mixed with every-day life of many people. In rural places, almost all the women know how to make carpets. They learn this from their mother and grow up with it. Many of them weave the carpets to take to their new homes when they get married. In Iran, carpet is not a mere commodity. It has different cultural, artistic, and historical heritage attached to it.
National Statistics
The population of Iran is about 65 million. In Iran, there are around 1,200,000 looms scattered in 27,000 villages and 210 cities, on which 2,200,000 weavers work. Roughly, 300,000 people work in the related fields such as artistic work, wool preparing and spinning, dyeing, repairing, washing, exporting, transporting and etc. In the year 2002, the export value of handmade carpet was USD 517,000,000, which showed almost 1% decrease to the year before which was USD 522,000,000. In this year, 5,920,000 square meters of handmade carpets were exported from Iran. One square meter of exported Iranian carpet was priced USD 83.00. In the year 2003, the export value of handmade carpet was USD 573,000,000 which showed almost 11% increase compared to the previous year. In 2003, 5,728,000 square meters of handmade carpets were exported from Iran. One square meter of exported Iranian carpet was priced USD 100 in 2003. Table 1 shows the value of Iranian carpet export in US Dollar for the past few years. After oil, handmade carpet is the highest source of foreign exchange earning for Iran. The most important aspect is not the value, but the employment which carpet sector provides as a job, and in most of the cases as a complementary income for the housewives and the families.

After the World War II was over, and due to the relative peace of mind, a population explosion occurred and baby boomers were born. This generation which is called “Generation X” entered the 80’s as the buyers of homes and consumers of furniture, bed, mattress and rugs. This was one of the reasons for huge increase in demand for Oriental rugs of the 80’s. In this short article, we study three main variables which have played a significant role in the rug market and compare three main factors in two time periods, in the early 1980’s and late 1990’s up to now. The variables under study are:
1- Buyers (who were/are they and how they reacted/react in the rug market?)
2- Sellers and the distribution channels (who were/are they and how they operated/operate?)
3- The rugs (material, color, design, and price)
It is with knowledge of the rug market and its components and studying the trends and changes that we can become successful players in the field, no matter which role we play (producer, exporter, importer, wholesaler, or end user). We use the term “old” to identify the early years of the 1980’s and “new” to identify the late years of the 1990’s and the beginning years of the 21st century. By seller, we mean the dealer or the sales people who sold or sell rugs. By customer, or buyer, we mean the end-user who buys the rug for his/her own use at home.