Carpet Weaving Women in Faryab Complain Lack of a Market

Several local carpet manufacturers in Maimana (the capital of Faryab province), are concerned lack of a sales market and the decrease in their handicraft production.

Handicraft products stagnate due to the recent political changes in the country, lack of investment by national businessmen, and government indifference in this sector, carpet weaving women say.
Latifa who has been weaving carpets for nearly 10 years, says that their business has decreased for two years and there is no market for their products.
She says that in the past they used to get 300-400 afghans for each meter of carpet that they weaved for shopkeepers, but now due to the stagnation of the market in this industry, they get 150 afghan for each meter.
Latifa asks the government to open schools for girls and says: “I prepare the thread myself, I weave with my daughter and my daughter-in-law. In the past, they went to school. Now that the schools are closed, they are weaving carpets because of unemployment.”
Halima, another woman who lost her husband 12 years ago, weave carpet to feed her children.
She says that she cannot buy raw materials from the market and sell her products herself, so she weaves carpets for shopkeepers with little salary.
“I weave a carpet with my two daughters at home in two days, selling it to the shopkeeper, They give me 300 Afghani and I buy food with this money.”
She asks the government to provide them with work opportunities to spend life.
Haji Qurban, a local carpet and rug seller in Maimana says that he has been working in the handicrafts trade for the past 10 years, but the domestic crafts market has been stagnant for the past two years.
He says, he distributes raw materials for weaving rugs to more than 200 women in Maimana city and pays 150 to 300 Afghani per meter.
“I give raw materials to the people, after weaving they bring them, and I pay for them. Last year was good, this year there is no market, if traders come to buy carpets, the market will be good.”
Meanwhile, the carpet sellers’ union vice president in Maimana, Aminullah stated the stagnation reason of the market’s lack of investment by the country’s businessmen and the inactivity of air corridors in the country.
“Afghanistan’s national industries such as rugs and carpets, especially from the north, do not have a market inside the country, but foreign countries including Pakistan and Iran, get more benefits by exporting them in their own name”, he said.
“In the past, many traders used to invest, but now after two years, many traders have left the country, they transferred their capital abroad, the carpet market has dropped a lot and there are no sales, we cannot send directly abroad. We sent products directly in the past from Kabul and Mazar, but the sales are meagre and the production has also decreased right now.”
However, Mohammad Alam Bidaki, the Director of Exporters Development of the Faryab Directorate of Industry and Trade, confirms a decrease in the market and production of rugs and carpets in this province, saying that rugs and carpets market and production decreased after the fall of Kabul to the Islamic Emirate, several national traders left the country. Adding that work on strengthening and encouraging investment in this sector is ongoing with the Ministry of Industry and Trade coordination to attract the attention of traders and foreign buyers to this industry.
Bidaki also announces the establishment of two industrial parks in the Andkhoi and Dawlatabad districts of Faryab province, saying that the construction work has started and he asks the national businessmen to return to the country and start their business activities to improve the market of industrial products.
Handicrafts, such as Afghan carpets and rugs are world famous. but still, their producers and sellers always complain about the lack of a market inside the country and the lack of favourable conditions for exporting abroad.