Head of Iran National Carpet Center Faisal Mardassi said that the market of hand-woven carpets will experience a prosperous period of activity in 2010 and 2011.

"We predict a global prosperity for exports of hand-woven carpets in 2010 and 2011," Mardassi told reporters on Saturday.He also predicted a hike in the volume of Iran's exports of hand-made carpets in the next Iranian year (starting on March 20), saying, "We have estimated that the volume of Iran's exports of hand-woven carpets would stand at $500 mln in 1389 (March 2010-March 2011)."Mardassi announced that Iran's hand-made carpet exports have increased 11.2% in terms of value and 4.7 in terms of weight during the last 10 months of the current Iranian year."Our estimates suggest that we could export $450 mln worth of hand-woven carpets by the yearend," he added.Pointing to the large market of the Persian rugs and carpets, the official said that Iranian carpets are exported to 31 countries worldwide,
including the US, Germany, UAE, Lebanon, Italy, Japan, Canada, Kuwait, Switzerland, Britain, Austria, Qatar, Sweden, Bahrain, France, Oman, Russia, Syria, Australia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Afghanistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Norway and Finland.