Iran's carpet exports to U.S. go from zero to millions

TEHRAN- About $69 million worth of Iranian carpets were exported to the United States during the first 10 months of the current Iranian calendar year, ended on January 19, while the figure was zero in the entire preceding year, ISNA quoted Hamid Kargar, the head of Iran’s National Carpet Center, on Wednesday.

As Kargar elaborated, addressing the opening ceremony of a carpet exhibition in the northeastern province of Golestan, following the implementation of the nuclear deal in January 2016, Iran restarted exporting its carpets to the U.S. after about five years.

During the said time, Iran could manage to export $275 million of carpets to 80 countries across the globe, registering 19 percent increase in comparison with the same time span in the previous year, he said.

The exported carpets weighted 4,400 tons, showing 10 percent rise, the official added.

The U.S. imposed a ban on carpet imports from the Islamic Republic, among other products, in September 2010. It was Iran’s major market for Persian rugs and the sanctions caused total carpet exports to drop by 30 percent — the embargo meant no American could buy, sell or import Persian rugs, even if they were purchased outside of the Islamic republic.

But with many of the west’s sanctions lifted after Tehran reached a historic nuclear deal with western powers last year, the industry has been enjoying a boom and sales to America have increased.