TEHRAN Iran's carpet exports has increased both in terms of value and weight in the past six months thanks to the policies for promoting non-oil exports, according to an expert at the Handwoven Carpets Cooperatives Union, Saba Khoei.

Speaking with IRNA on Tuesday, Khoei said, "The changes in foreign exchange policies in 1995 led to reduction in carpet export earnings by $700 million annually."

She said that by exporting 7.5 million square meters of carpet, the country earned $1.5 billion in 1994.

Iran's annual carpet production stood at mere 5 to 5.5 million square meters on average in the years from the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to 1987, she observed.

Khoei, who was speaking on threshold of the Second Exhibition of the Cooperatives Sector's Export Potentials, said that entry of such countries as Nepal, China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey, to the world carpet market has created limitations for Iranian carpets in recent years.

The expert pointed out that handwoven carpets cooperatives unions have 10 percent share in creation of jobs and 11.5 percent in the production sector.

She said most of the carpets produced in provinces of Khorasan, Zanjan, Lorestan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Kermanshah and West Azarbaijan are exported to Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain and the Middle East states.