Silk Industry Struggles in Herat

In the workshop of silk trader Abbas Azami in western Afghanistan, eight craftsmen are busy behind the wooden frames of their looms as they weave handkerchiefs.

Now, however, they fear that the era of Herat’s famed silk industry could soon be at an end.

“In the past, our handicrafts were very valuable, and businesspeople and wealth customers used to go to those who were producing silk handkerchiefs, shawls and turbans,” said Mohammad Hussain, 75, his body bent after more than half a century as a silk weaver. “Owning silk products was then a sign of nobility, but now the good customers are gone, along with our high wages.”

Many of Hussain’s colleagues have left the industry, some dismissed by workshop owners and others forced to abandon their craft for more profitable work.

A silk industry worker can now expect to earn just two-and-a-half US dollars a day, Hussain said, warning that unless the government steps in to help, Herat’s heritage as a centre of silk-making will be lost.

Abbas Azami, head of Herat’s silk weaving union with 20 years in the industry behind him, said that the market had become moribund due to the wide availability of cheaper foreign materials since the fall of the Taleban regime nine years ago.

While 100 silk weaving workshops were operating up until 2001, now only ten were in production, he said. The industry’s turnover had dropped from 320,000 to 32,000 dollars a year.

“We used to produce silk handkerchiefs, turbans, shawls and other items. In those days, every machine could produce three silk turbans a week, and they would sell as 25 dollars a time, but now that’s been lost.”

Azami recalled how the silk-makers of Herat used to supply markets across Afghanistan.

“About 90 per cent of the products were sold in Herat and other provinces of Afghanistan and only 10 per cent went to tourists,” he said. “They were used to decorate homes, and they generated a very good income.”

Herat has long been famed for its high-quality silk, a material particularly valued in Afghanistan for both its beauty and its practical use, and is a favourite gift to newly-married couples.

Making of silk is a laborious process which begins with hatching silkworm eggs and feeding the larvae on mulberry leaves until they form cocoons. Silk farmers collect these and boil them to release silken threads which are dyed and spun.

“We produce a natural product so we spend more on the outlay, which makes the price higher,” Azami said. “Imitation products are imported to Herat and sold at a comparatively low rate. In some cases, smugglers bring them in through illegal routes, and they put the Herat stamp on these goods.”

Azami said the Afghan government should act to restrict imports from countries like China and Pakistan, and revive the domestic industry.

Herat’s union of artisans has taken some measures to block the influx of counterfeit goods, according to its deputy head, Obaidullah Yari.

Yari said a consignment of poor-quality, smuggled Chinese shawls was recently found at a Herat market and the smuggler was fined. Investigations are also under way into businessmen who imported Pakistani turbans and marketed them as Herat-made.

“Some shawl-makers imported low-quality cloth from China and Pakistan and stamped them with Herati brands. Our union caught those behind it and they promised not to do it again,” he said.

To boost the trade in authentic silk items, Yari’s organisation has held exhibitions in Herat itself and in Tajikistan, to the north of Afghanistan.

Economists says that in a free market system, competition makes it hard to restrict imports of foreign goods.

Herat university professor Ahmad Farhad Shahidzada said the problem lay with the province’s silk industry itself, which has been unable to retain its market position.

“These small enterprises have no administrative management, and no marketing, finance and production professionals,” he said.

At a market in Masjid-e Jami street in Herat, once the centre of the province’s silk trade, shoppers seem to have lost interest in buying handmade goods.

Teacher Mohammad Kazim said he used to buy Herati silk turbans and handkerchiefs at the market, but these days, foreign-made goods dominated.

“They are more beautiful and cheaper too, so now we use these foreign products,” he said.

Aziz Ahmad, a student in the city, believes that Afghan silk items are inferior to imported ones, and more expensive.

“They are old – the old men use them, or else they should be put in museums,” he said. “If I need to, I can get Pakistani handkerchiefs.”

Sharif Sayidi is an IWPR-trained reporter in Herat province.