AZERBAIJAN: Carpet production boosted as market grows

Record ID: 218074

  • Title: AZERBAIJAN: Carpet production boosted as market grows
  • Date: 17th March 2011
  • Summary: BAKU, AZERBAIJAN (RECENT - MARCH, 2011) (REUTERS) SEAFRONT VIEW RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS STREET IN OLD PART OF BAKU VARIOUS OF CARPETS AND RUGS ON DISPLAY ON STREETS IN OLD PART OF CITY VARIOUS OF CAT SITTING ON RUG CARPETS ON DISPLAY MAN WALKING INTO SHOP VARIOUS OF FAUD MUSTAFA, SHOP ASSISTANT IN CENTRAL BAKU, SHOWING CARPET TO CUSTOMER (SOUNDBITE) (Azeri) FAUD MU
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
  • Country: Azerbaijan
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAB79FU76IQIJOA1OEQDDNRS2H1
  • Story Text: Hardly any visitor to oil-rich Azerbaijan misses the chance to visit the many shops selling eye-catching and richly-coloured carpets, woven in hundreds of traditional patterns, preserved and refined through the centuries.
    This highly-developed Azeri craft, dating back to the third century BC, entered the UNESCO list of 'intangible cultural heritage' last December, giving renewed impetus for further development.
    Carpet weaving in Azerbaijan used to be a part of daily life and was a family tradition handed down orally and through practice, from generation to generation within communities, across the country.
    Certain regions excelled in the craft and set different styles and types, now called schools, characteristic to a particular region of Azerbaijan and sometimes to a certain village.
    But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 severely reduced demand for carpets, forcing manufacturers to cut production. A sharp drop in income caused by hyperinflation in the early 1990s led consumers to buy cheaper machine-made imports.
    Recent influx of oil money and tourists, willing to buying rugs and carpets locally, combined with opened possibility to export gave the carpet production second wind.
    In Azeri homes the carpet is still widely used and carpets are woven for special occasions like weddings, the birth of a child, for prayer ceremonies, even for the treatment of a sick person.
    Many carpet workshops weave their products for sale and make substantial sums of money. Depending on the size, complexity of pattern and the density of knots, the price of one square metre of hand- made carpet varies from 150 U.S. dollars to 2, 000 U.S. dollars.
    According to the Azeri Statistical Committee sales through State channels doubled during the past five years.
    Faud Mustafa, who sells carpets in the old part of the Azeri capital, Baku, knows this from personal experience rather than from official statistics and he confirmed that people are buying more these days, noting that the number of local customers has increased.
    "Lots of foreign customers buy carpets here, but lately our Azeri population shows interest in these carpets. And they are interested in hand made carpets in particular."
    "We have ancient carpets for sale here and some of them are 150-160 years old. We have different carpets and the price varies from 300 manats (about 380 U.S. dollars) to 5000 manats (more then 6 000 U.S. dollars)," said Mustafa proudly, displaying his wares.
    Azeri weavers use only organic dyes mainly of plant origin, which follow strictly centuries-old traditional techniques of colouring. They use seven basic colours: red, green, yellow, black, dark blue, white and purple. Dyeing is not an easy task and it requires skill, experience and the natural talent of a weaver.
    The weavers use three traditional, basic hand tools - a knife, a beater and shears - as they sit before their vast weaving looms, working fast to tie the thousands of knots needed to make up a carpet.
    Nurie Sadikhova, 53, wove her first carpet when she was only six years old and has not stopped working since. Born in the family of professional weavers she thins the earlier girls are introduced to carpet weaving the better.
    "As soon as you learn how to handle a knife you can start weaving. I was so interested in carpets that I used to cut classes. Weaving was my only interest. I enjoyed preparing yarn and patterns," Sadikhova said while preparing yarn in one of the biggest private carpet production firms, Azerilme, in Baku.
    The firm employs about 350 staff and most of them are women.
    "Our men do not weave. I heard and saw on TV that men weave carpets in Iran. If only our men had woven a carpet or two, then they would have really appreciated us," Sadikhova said smiling, causing giggles among the younger women weavers.
    A professional weaver can produce only eight to ten centimetres of woollen carpet and five-eight centimetres of silk carpet during one working day.
    It takes from seven to 12 months' hard labour by four weavers to produce a 20-square metre carpet.
    Sadikhova's 19 year-old daughter works alongside her mother and remembers how she started as a weaver.
    "I earned 20 manats (about 25 U.S. dollars) from my first carpet. It was five or six years ago and it was big money then and I spent it all on myself," said Sadikhova.
    There are three big carpet manufacturers and an ever-growing number of small and family businesses producing carpets in Azerbaijan.
    Antique Azerbaijani carpets can be found around the globe, from the White House in Washington DC to the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Louvre in Paris, the V&A in London, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and the Vatican.
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