Popularity of Carpet Oasis props up struggling traders

Dubai: The Carpet Oasis exhibition has become a regular fixture on the DSF calendar, attracting wholesale and individual customers from across the region. Now it has become a platform for struggling carpet traders to make up for low trading volumes in the rest of the year.

Adel Al Azraq, owner of Sharjah-based Esfahan Exhibition, uses the exhibition to sell carpets he normally has trouble selling from his obscure shop in Sharjah. "From this exhibition I get a lot of repeat customers coming to my shop — for a month I sell a lot," said Al Azraq. "In my shop in Sharjah I get very few customers."

G.H. Tahriri, owner of Tahriri Carpet Trading, said sales have not been good at his Deira based shop. "Maybe it's due to the economic problems and the situation of the world," he said.

Struggling to make ends meet with low sales in Iran, carpet retailers such as A.N. Moghaddam travel from Iran to Dubai for the yearly Carpet Oasis exhibition in hopes of selling more of their wares there.

"Because of low sales in Iran, I have come to Dubai to sell my carpets; I come once a year for one month for this exhibition," said Moghaddam, owner of Moghaddam Export Carpets. "I've brought 500 pieces over."

The carpets he sells come mostly from Qom, Tabriz and Isfahan. "In Iran I sold mostly to tourists but the number of tourists we see in Iran is very little now," said Moghaddam. "It's about 2 per cent of what it was about six years ago."

According to Maywand Jabarkhyl, general manager Tanweer Investments, said the Dh10,000 discount DSF has offered for stall owners has been a big help for a lot of the struggling traders.

In turn, shoppers are able to enjoy discounted prices at the exhibition often lower than those at shops. Many of the carpets sold are also priced lower than in the countries where they are made.

"Most buyers look for something affordable now; so for this show I have carpets that range from Dh500 to Dh60,000," said Moghaddam.

"I'm selling my carpets here cheaper than I'm selling them in Iran because I don't want to take them back."

Proceeds from rugs help build lives in Afghanistan

Their carpets have graced the walls and floors of royal residences across the UAE and Afghanistan and have been used as gifts to prominent figures such as Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tanweer FBMI's carpet selection has been gaining in popularity across the region. The major draw for the company is that the pricetag of Afghan carpets comes with a feel good factor.

Tanweer FBMI — a partnership between Tanweer Investments and Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak — gives women in the rural areas of Afghanistan a new lease of life by offering them training in wool spinning and weaving. Around 42 per cent of the Afghan population lives on $1 (Dh3.68) a day. Through training and by being given a job, the 3,600 artisans that are working with Tanweer FBMI are able to earn around $2 to $5 a day depending on their productivity.

"All proceeds of the carpets will go to the programme which provides free health care, children's education, of improved sanitation and access to clean water, adult vocational training, and capacity development," said Maywan Jabarkhyl, general manager of Tanweer FBMI.

The Tanweer FBMI initiative targets the poorest in society through employment at refugee camps as far as the Pakistan border. They have also recently become the first private-sector company in the history of Afghanistan to employ inmates at the Kabul women's prison.

Indigenous wool

The carpets produced are woven using indigenous Afghan wool purchased from Afghan traders. From the raw material to design to production, the end product is a 100 per cent Afghan initiative.

The end products are sold for Dh1,000 to Dh2,000 per square metre in international markets. A showroom in London caters to Europe.

The extra money earned goes back into social commitment and research and development in terms of improving the quality of the products.