Photo taken on May 8, 2022 shows a handmade backpack in a carpet shop in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghanistan has exported more than 1 million square meters of carpet over the past year, a local television channel reported Saturday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
KABUL, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan has exported more than 1 million square meters of carpet over the past year, a local television channel reported Saturday.
Quoting the Union of Carpet Producers and Exporters of the country, Tolonews reported that "the number of carpet weavers increased over the past one year and the country produced and exported more than 1 million square meters of carpets in the year of 1400 (in Persian calender ended on March 20).
"Production has increased by 20 percent," the media outlet quoted Mohammad Asef Yaghoubi, a member of the Carpet Producers and Exporters Union, as saying.
However, following the U.S. military withdrawal, Washington has slapped sanctions on the new Afghan administration, freezing Afghanistan's central bank assets worth more than 9 billion U.S. dollars and thus plunging the aid-dependent country into an economic crisis.
The U.S. sanctions have also led to the isolation of Afghanistan and restricted air connection between the war-torn country and other countries.
Some carpet exporters are concerned about the lack of flights and the closure of air corridors between Afghanistan and other countries, calling for facilitating the export of carpets, according to the media outlet.
"The air corridors are closed, we do not have visa facilities, and we have few exports through Pakistan," said Mohammad Rafi, a carpet seller. ■
An Afghan person works in a carpet shop in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 8, 2022. Afghanistan has exported more than 1 million square meters of carpet over the past year, a local television channel reported Saturday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)
A man cleans a carpet in a carpet market in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 8, 2022. Afghanistan has exported more than 1 million square meters of carpet over the past year, a local television channel reported Saturday. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)