India tops carpet export with 35% marketshare

India has emerged the biggest exporter of handmade carpets in the world beating traditional powerhouse Iran and China. The country has grabbed 35.5 per cent of the $2.6 billion export market, according to the latest data available with the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC).

"While we are happy with the performance of the Indian carpet industry to emerge as the main supplier to the world market, the plan is to further consolidate our position and double production in the next five years," said Sanjay Agarwal, Development Commisioner (Handicrafts). Apart from cost advantage in production, flexibility has been the key agent in scoring over the global competition.

"While other carpet producing countries concentrate on one or two areas of specialisation, India's strength has been its ability to produce diverse variety of carpets that meet various needs. Indian exporters offer knotted, tufted, woven, Indo-Nepalese, Indo-Tibetian and other kinds of weave patterns," said T S Chadha, executive director, CEPC.

"Indian weavers also have the skills to replicate designs quickly and produce these designs cheaper than in the country of origin. Innovation is another big asset as our weavers can modify or produce new designs according to emerging trends and demands." According to the latest available figures, China figures next with 20 per cent marketshare amounting to $500 million in value terms. Iran follows closely with an 18 per cent share, followed by Pakistan with 10.4 per cent, Nepal with 4.4 per cent and Turkey with 3.4 per cent. The others account for the remaining 8 per cent.

Indian handmade carpet exports accounted for over $900 million for the calendar year 2004 even as the demand for handmade carpets grew by just 4.69 per cent in three years. The marketshare of handmade carpets is only 8-9 per cent of the global carpet market, while machine woven carpets make up for the rest. Export data for 2005 is yet to be tabulated.