Business has never been so dull in Najib Zarab, the carpet market in Kabul. Trader Mohammad Nasim says not a single foreign trader has come looking for the exquisite hand-made Afghan carpet. Unfortunately most Afghans cannot afford to buy them.
Business has never been so dull in Najib Zarab, the carpet market in Kabul. Trader Mohammad Nasim says not a single foreign trader has come looking for the exquisite hand-made Afghan carpet. Unfortunately most Afghans cannot afford to buy them.
The traditional Afghan carpet industry has just not been able to compete against cheap imports from Iran and Turkey. Carpet traders have repeatedly urged the government to facilitate exports. “We traders don’t have the wherewithal to transport carpets to foreign markets. We are not helped by customs offices either,” says Nasim. With heavy taxes on foreign sales, Afghan carpet-makers are forced to sell unfinished carpets to traders who take them across the border to Pakistan where they are washed and trimmed and sold with Made in Pakistan stamps.
Before cheap imports flooded the market, nearly 50 percent of Afghan carpets were sold within the country. Trader Nasim says Turkish carpetmakers are good at copying other carpet traditions including Afghanistan’s. While the free market is good for business, in the case of carpets it has been a death blow. Traders say there is a 70 percent decrease in business.
Troubled industry
Bibi Shirin Akbari heads a 15-year-old carpet and handicrafts company called Khuwaindo (sisters). Her family which had fled to Pakistan during the Taleban years had woven carpets for a livelihood there. When they returned home, they got a loan from a bank and continued to weave carpets. “We used to weave custom-made rugs of national personalities, the map of Afghanistan and other images and sell them in the market at Bagrami. There were many buyers then, but now Afghani carpets do not have a market. When we wove carpets in Peshawar they were sold under Pakistani labels but now I have machines for trimming and washing carpets. When they are finished I take the carpets to exhibitions,” Akbari told Killid. The market for carpets has been “cold” since last year, she says. Khuwaindo has shifted to making handicrafts as a result, she adds.
An overwhelming majority of carpet-makers are women. The daily wage is a mere 50 Afs (one USD is 70 Afs). Shakila who heads a foundation called De Shazo Taroon (which translates as women’s agreement) would like to see workshops for carpet designing in order to strengthen the skills of women carpetmakers. Also, agreements with both foreign and local companies to ensure workers get paid better wages.
The authorities in the Ministry of Commerce and Industries say that some 1.5 million Afghans are working in the carpet industry. The industry has received roughly 50 million Afs (718,000 USD) assistance from the government. Two facilities for carpet trimming and have been set up in two provinces with aid from the US. Esmatullah, head of a carpetmakers union that was set up in 1967, says there are some 28 factories for manufacturing and more are in the pipeline in Balkh province while new facilities for the washing of carpets are expected to come up in Faryab, Nangarhar and Balkh provinces.
According to Esmatullah, Afghan carpets were always sent to the neighbouring countries after weaving for further processing but now there are processing factories of international standards opening in the country.
Ministry spokesperson Musafer Quqandi claims the industry has seen exports grow from 2011. There was a fall in carpet sales abroad between 2007 and 2011 because Afghan carpets were priced very high and there was a global recession at the time, he adds.
According to Quqandi, the ministry has allotted land to set up five carpet factories in five provinces under a three-year plan, from 2015-18, to boost the industry. Three ministries are involved in ensuring that factories would be opened in the next couple of months to make high-quality raw materials for carpets, he says. Shortage of raw materials and poor facilities for manufacture and export that has meant carpet traders could take months to deliver on orders, have been bad for the carpet industry.
“We have plans to give short term loans in installments,” says Ququndi. To facilitate export, the ministry has signed an agreement with a foreign airline for the quick transportation (within 72 hours) of carpets of a given dimension (six square metres) at the rate of 28 USD each.
Corruption hurdles
Mohammad Nabi has been trading in Afghani carpets in Faryab market for the last 12 years. He says he spends 100 USD to fly a six sqare metres carpet to a customer outside the country, a rate that leaves him with little profit. He points out that Afghan carpetmakers are also forced to buy wool that has been imported from Iran, China and Belgium because Afghan wool lacks the shine that comes from being processed in modern facilities.
Traders say high customs duties and bribes they have to pay at checkposts makes it very unviable to export carpets. Nabi, the trader in Faryab, says he ends up having to pay 50 USD as customs. In addition, “customs offices take three times the original price for every item that is being transported”, he adds.
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