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U.S. rug industry not as large as India hoped

Lissa Wyman, Rug Editor -- Furniture Today, March 26, 2006

Last month, I spoke to a group of Indian rug exporters in New Delhi. I was there to pontificate on the state of the U.S. rug market; I'm afraid I told them things they didn't want to hear. "The U.S. rug business is much smaller than you think," I said.

My guess is that the total rug business is less than $6 billion at retail. It's only a guess, because I have yet to see reliable statistics on this business.

Did they believe me? A few came up to me and said, "We've always thought the U.S. rug market was limitless. All you have to do is get to the right people."

India is a major producer of both hand-knotted and hand-tufted rugs, and manufacturers are eager to increase their business with U.S. importers and retailers. The exporters told me the United States is considered their largest export opportunity by a large margin.

According to The Woolmark Co., which licenses the Woolmark label worldwide, India's current carpet and rug shipments to the United States total about $590 million, from lowly bath mats to mansion-size I assume that's a wholesale value, but I don't know. I also don't know the source of those figures.

The scarcity of reliable figures is a dead giveaway that we are not dealing with a mega-industry. As a retail source told me, "If the rug industry was really large, it would attract more attention from the international business community."

While Indian rug making is still primarily a business of artisans, manufacturers are becoming more deeply involved in sophisticated research and development.

The Indian industry was largely responsible for the development of hand-tufted construction, an inexpensive form of hand-made rug. Over the past five years, this construction, from both India and archrival China, has been the best-selling type of hand-made rug in the United States.

Both Indian exporters and U.S. importers bemoan the fact that hand-tufted rugs are actually too popular, taking over a great deal of the market that used to go to higher-quality hand-knotted rugs.

There are a lot of hand-tufted rugs available, and since they are inexpensive, they are less profitable for everyone — artisan, exporter, agent, importer and retailer.

Now, textiles engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology have developed a new loom for traditional hand-knotted rugs that will double production and increase quality. Lower prices on hand knots are surely on their way.

I hope my new friends in India learned something from me. I certainly learned a great deal from them. One thing is certain: We are in a global industry and we all face the same issues of finding a market for our products and making a decent profit.

Now I'm off to Shanghai and Tibet to attend the Domotex Asia/China Floor show and the Quinghai Tibetan Carpets Exhibition. I'm sure my global education will continue.

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