Beyond ₹2,000 Crore: Can Kashmir Reclaim Global Luxury Market? Part-I

(This news article is two-part series. Part-I is published today.)

Kashmir’s handicrafts are normally discussed as heritage. They certainly are, but that description is incomplete.

Kashmir’s carpets, Pashmina and woollen shawls, Sozni, Kani, papier-mâché, walnut wood carving, Khatamband and its many other crafts also constitute an international industry with the potential to generate much greater employment, foreign exchange and value addition than they do today.

The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has set a target of taking handicraft, handloom and textile exports to ₹2,000 crore by 2030. The target is important, but the real question is why Kashmir’s ambition should stop at ₹2,000 crore when global markets for products it can make are worth tens of billions of dollars.

To answer that question, we need to look beyond production and reported exports. We need to understand what happened to Kashmir’s international markets after the 1990s, how much export business moved to Delhi and other Indian centres, how Kashmiri products compare with those of the world’s leading luxury craft producers, and what needs to be done to make “Kashmir” itself a global mark of craftsmanship.

Government production and export statistics tell two somewhat different stories.

The latest J&K statistical series estimates total handicraft production at ₹1,568.23 crore in 2023-24. Woollen-shawl production alone was estimated at ₹715.86 crore.

The Economic Survey, meanwhile, reports handicraft exports during 2023-24 at ₹1,162.29 crore, including ₹317.33 crore in carpets, ₹477.24 crore in woollen shawls, ₹38.44 crore in papier-mâché and ₹329.28 crore in other crafts.

These are useful official numbers, but they should not automatically be regarded as representing the complete value of Kashmiri handicrafts reaching international consumers.

There is a historical reason for this.

Kashmir Lost Buyer, not Market

Before the political disruption of the 1990s, international buyers regularly came to Srinagar. They examined carpets and shawls, met manufacturers and traders, saw how products were made and negotiated directly with those involved in production.

As conditions changed, foreign buyers became increasingly reluctant to travel to Kashmir. Wholesale and export activity migrated towards Delhi and other commercial centres.

The artisan remained in Kashmir and the product continued to be made in Kashmir, but the international buyer increasingly dealt with somebody elsewhere.

A carpet manufactured in Srinagar could be purchased by a trader, transported to Delhi and exported from there. In customs statistics, it would become an Indian export through Delhi. Economically, however, it remained a Kashmir-origin manufactured product.

That distinction is important.

Official exports from Kashmir should therefore not automatically be assumed to represent the entire international business generated by Kashmiri handicrafts.

We need a statistical system capable of separately measuring production within Kashmir, direct exports from Kashmir and Kashmir-origin products exported through Delhi, Mumbai and other Indian centres.

Only then will we know the real size of the industry.

When I became President of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2006, one issue became increasingly clear to me: Kashmir had to reconnect its producers directly with international buyers.

That was why KCCI organised its first Buyer-Seller Meet in Srinagar in 2007, followed by further meets, including those in 2009 and 2011. The purpose was straightforward: bring foreign buyers back to Kashmir and reconnect them with manufacturers and artisans.

This was much more than organising an exhibition. It was an attempt to repair a commercial relationship that had been broken.

A buyer sitting in a Delhi showroom sees a finished carpet. A buyer visiting Srinagar can see the loom, meet the artisan, examine the yarn and design and understand the dyeing, knotting and enormous amount of time involved in producing it.

That experience creates a completely different basis for selling a premium product.

During the same period, KCCI facilitated participation by Kashmiri exporters in international exhibitions outside India under Government of India programmes. For the first time, we were taken at par with export promotion councils.

The logic was simple. If international buyers could not always come to Kashmir, Kashmiri exporters had to go to them.

Both approaches remain relevant today.

Kashmir Must Stop Thinking Volume

The greatest opportunity for Kashmir is not necessarily to produce more. It is to capture more value from every product that is already being produced.

A handmade carpet that sells for a certain amount at source may eventually sell for several multiples of that price in an international luxury market. Some of the difference naturally reflects distribution, logistics, finance, retail and marketing costs. But another part reflects branding and market power.

If Kashmir remains primarily the place of production while international branding and distribution are controlled elsewhere, much of the potential value will continue to leave Kashmir.

The objective should therefore be straightforward: produce better, brand better, sell more directly and capture more value.

Of all Kashmir’s crafts, carpets perhaps offer the clearest demonstration of what can be achieved through quality, differentiation and geographical branding.

Official figures put carpet exports at ₹317.33 crore in 2023-24, but that tells us relatively little about the possibilities at the upper end of the international market.

My own experience in marketing Kashmiri carpets internationally taught me that there is virtually no simple ceiling on the price of an exceptional handmade carpet.

A mass-market handmade carpet and a museum-quality silk carpet are not the same product. They should not be marketed as though they were.

Iran offers an important lesson.

An Iranian carpet is not sold merely as an “Iranian carpet.” Its geographical origin matters. Tabriz, Qom, Isfahan and Nain carry distinct reputations. Place itself becomes part of the product's value.

I remember acquiring a large Iranian wool-and-silk carpet from Tabriz, approximately six metres in dimension, at a wholesale purchase price of around US$80,000. What was particularly striking was the complexity of its design and the extraordinary range of approximately 150 colours.

The lesson is not that every Kashmiri carpet can command such a price. It is that international buyers will pay very high prices when craftsmanship, material, design, provenance and reputation come together.

Kashmir needs to develop a similar geographical hierarchy.

Instead of merely selling a “Kashmiri carpet”, we should eventually have internationally recognised categories associated with Kashmir, Srinagar, particular production clusters, master workshops, design traditions, knot densities and materials.

Place can become part of price.

Kashmir produces forms of knotting broadly corresponding to the symmetric or Ghiordes knot and the asymmetric or Senneh knot. The structures create different characteristics and allow different design effects.

Kashmir's production has historically been dominated by the Persian-type knot, while single-knot production remains more limited. That creates an opportunity to deliberately develop a high-end single-knot carpet segment.

The argument is not that one knot is automatically superior to another. The important considerations are density, quality of yarn, workmanship, and the visual resolution the weaver can achieve.

International buyers need to be educated about these distinctions.

Looking Towards Hereke

For high-end silk carpets, Kashmir should study Hereke in Türkiye.

Hereke demonstrates how a geographical name can become a quality designation in itself. Specialist information on Hereke silk carpets describes exceptionally high knot densities, with the finest pieces reaching extraordinary levels of intricacy.

The lesson is not to copy Hereke. Kashmir should instead ask why it cannot deliberately create a comparable ultra-luxury silk-carpet category of its own.

The weaving skills already exist. What needs to come together is high-quality raw material, exceptional knot density, original design, finishing, branding, certification and sophisticated international marketing.

This could also help revive Kashmir's historic silk industry.

If Kashmir develops an ultra-luxury silk-carpet segment, it should move towards high-quality pure silk yarn. Better silk can produce finer carpets. Finer carpets can command higher prices. Higher prices create greater demand for quality silk, which in turn can generate higher-value employment.

Instead of treating silk simply as an old industry requiring preservation, Kashmir can create a modern luxury market for it.

The same principle applies to wool.

Kashmir should not attempt to compete with inexpensive machine-made or coarse handmade carpets. The opportunity lies in fine wool and luxury wool carpets, including carefully selected fibres and, where technically and economically appropriate, Pashmina-blended or Pashmina-content luxury products.

Fine fibre, high knot density, sophisticated design and superior finishing should produce a carpet capable of competing internationally on quality rather than price.

Kashmir once enjoyed a reputation for extraordinarily fine carpets. The objective should be to reclaim that reputation at the top end of the market.

Estimates of the global handmade-carpet market differ considerably because researchers use different definitions. Some estimates put the market well above US$10 billion annually.

The precise number matters less than the scale it indicates.

If Kashmir were eventually to capture even 10 per cent of a US$10-billion handmade-carpet market, that would amount to a US$1-billion industry. At 20 per cent, it would be US$2 billion.

These are not forecasts. They simply illustrate the scale of the opportunity and how small Kashmir's current reported exports are in comparison.

Pashmina Needs Luxury Hierarchy

The same segmentation should be applied to shawls.

“Pashmina” is not a homogeneous product. There are significant differences in fibre fineness and purity, spinning, weaving, embroidery, design, colour, provenance and finishing.

There is no reason why a relatively basic Pashmina product and an exceptional handcrafted Pashmina should be sold into the same market or presented to consumers as though they were equivalent.

Fibre diameter itself can become an instrument of luxury segmentation.

High-quality Kashmir Pashmina is commonly associated with extremely fine fibres. The opportunity is to introduce a more sophisticated grading system within the genuine product.

If exceptionally fine fibres are identified through scientifically verified testing, they could be separated and marketed as an ultra-fine category, provided any definition remains legally and technically consistent with applicable Pashmina and Geographical Indication standards.

An important distinction must be maintained here. Shahtoosh, derived from the Tibetan antelope, is prohibited in international trade in many jurisdictions and should never be presented as a commercial alternative to Pashmina.

The opportunity lies instead in scientifically identifying, sorting and certifying the finest legally available Pashmina fibres and creating a premium category around them.

Published estimates of the global Pashmina and luxury cashmere markets vary widely, but the underlying message is unmistakable: Kashmir operates within a global luxury-fibre market measured in billions of dollars.

It should therefore create a recognisable premium hierarchy covering categories such as Kashmir Pashmina, Kashmir Fine Pashmina, Kashmir Ultra-Fine Pashmina, Kashmir Pashmina-Silk, Kashmir Kani, Kashmir Sozni and specialised heritage collections.

Each category should have a clearly defined material, quality, provenance, price and consumer proposition.

That is the larger shift Kashmir needs to make. We should stop asking merely how many carpets or shawls can be produced and exported. We should ask how much value Kashmir can create, retain and command from every exceptional product that leaves an artisan's hands.

In Part II, I will examine how the same principle can transform papier-mâché and walnut wood, and why Kashmir needs an entirely new international marketing architecture if its crafts are to become recognised global luxury brands.