SHAHR-E-Kord, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Prov. - Iran earns Rls.4,800 billion worth of foreign exchange from export of handicrafts annually, said the Head of the Handicrafts Organization, Ali Danesh-Monfared, here on Wednesday. The exports constitute 80 percent of the total handicrafts, including hand-woven carpets, produced in the country, he added. Despite the fact that the handicraft industry accounts for three to five percent of the gross national products, the official said, handicraft workers are amongst the most deprived segment of the country's population.

He called for more attention to the well being of the people working in the industry. Touching on the slump hurting Iranian carpets in world markets, the official said by producing authentic Iranian carpets and using premium quality material, we can leave behind all our competitors in the world. Amongst measures to rejuvenate the carpet industry by the government, the official enumerated the allocation of total sum of the foreign exchange earned from carpet exports to the exporters, providing training for carpet weavers as well as plans to encourage production of inexpensive carpets for domestic markets.

Danesh-Monfared further stated that one million square meters of gleem (a kind of coarse carpet) is produced annually in Iran, which shows a five-fold jump compared to that of the years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. (IRNA)