Carpet industry of Pakistan survived its decreasing trend in the European markets by switching its production from traditional Persian designs to the Kazakh vegetable dyed varieties.
These custom-made vegetable dyed Central Asian designs were introduced by Afghan refugees based here and US market grabbed it enthusiastically.
Lahore is known for conventional Persian carpet varieties. Few local artisans adopted new techniques of these Afghanis and today, 80 percent of carpet exports of the country originate from Lahore. This adaptation to new technique saved Pakistan from being eliminated from the world carpet market.
The vegetable dyes are natural and century old Kazakh designs on carpet attracted US customers.
Foreign buyers now demand specific carpets in terms of colour, size and design from the exporters rather than traditional which was introduced by US buyers and now Europeans are also following them.