90pc of Afghan carpets exported as Pakistani product

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Officials of the Association of Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters on Monday said that the Afghan carpet industry has recently progressed but Afghan carpets are still being exported to other countries as Pakistani product.

The officials, who attended a meeting to introduce the newly-appointed head of their union in the north, said the carpet industry had started booming recently, but there were problems with exports.

Mohammad Omar Sewar, deputy chairman of the Afghanistan Carpet Exporters and Manufacturers Association, attributed the growth of the industry to drought and agricultural problems in Afghanistan, forcing farmers to switch to carpet weaving instead of farming.

He also says the smuggling of Afghan animal wool abroad has created problems for local industrialists.

“Afghan carpets are the number one carpet in the world, but 90 percent of Afghan carpets are exported from Pakistan under Pakistan brand,” he said.

Abdul Sattar Begzada, a former director of the Carpet Association in the North and an expert in the carpet industry, said he had shared the problem with officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and they had assured him that the problem would be dealt with seriously.

He said the biggest buyers of Afghan carpets were the United States and the European Union.

Begzada also added that there has been a decline in carpet buyers in Afghanistan and that government-sponsored handicraft fairs should be set up to promote them.

Mohammad Anwar Rahimi, the newly-appointed director of the union in the northern zone, says carpets make up the bulk of Afghanistan’s domestic production after agriculture.

He says that about one million square meters of carpets are produced every year and about one and a half million people are employed in this sector.

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