TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) -- Four new customers have been added to the list of importers of Persian tableau carpets, said a senior carpet industry official, adding that the United States, Canada, Malaysia and Thailand have joined a number of other countries showing growing interest in the highly expensive item.

Jalaleddin Bassam, a carpet exporter, said that tableau rugs account for 0.5% of the entire national hand-woven carpet production.

He said some 4,000 weavers are involved in tableau carpet production in Iran.

The official further noted that almost half the country’s tableau carpet production is exported to Persian Gulf Arab states and some European countries.

“The U.S., Canada, Malaysia and Thailand have also joined the Persian tableau carpets’ international customers,” he said, adding that Iranian carpet exporters can officially begin export of tableau rugs to these countries.

He said the company has received an order from Sultanate of Oman for weaving nine fine Persian carpets.

Bassam said in September that the total value of agreements with Oman on weaving large Persian carpets is expected to reach $1.5 billion by next March, adding that the Islamic countries’ ambassadors to Tehran have also shown increasing interest in ordering large rugs.

He said, however, that diplomatic missions and political figures will have to go through official channels to order Persian carpets, which is time-consuming.

“Hence, we prefer to hold talks with private companies (of these countries) since official channels are long and exhausting,” he said, adding that a major agreement has also been reached with Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, after 1.5 years of negotiations.

He said Iran successfully finished the project to weave 6,000 square meters of Persian carpets ordered by the Persian Gulf Arab states and is seeking to sign a number of similar projects with Oman.

Iran accounts for $500 million of the total global carpet trade of $1.4 billion a year. Over 200,000 carpet weavers are active nationwide.