The CFE 2023 - Machine-Made Carpet and Flooring Fair took place from December 5-8, 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey, a renowned tourist destination. The CFE, Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair, marked its debut with the aim and motto of bringing together carpet and flooring manufacturers and industry professionals.
Carpet & Flooring Expo or CFE 2023 in short, is a newly established exhibition event that held its inaugural edition in December of 2023. The Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair (CFE) brought together numerous machine-made carpet manufacturers from around the globe.
Among the participants of the Machine-Made Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair (CFE), a significant percentage of brands and manufacturers of machine-made carpets were also present, among which Beheshti Carpet, as a design, manufacturing, and trading company, shone brightly.
Turkey stands as the second-largest exporter of machine-made carpets on the global stage, generating a revenue of $2.6 billion from carpet exports. With this immense potential, Turkey aims to enhance its capabilities and maximize the utilization of this industry.
The most strategic approach to increase this capability comprehensively in international supply is to become a turning point in this industry and provide subtle support for Turkey’s successful tourism industry and other thriving sectors.
The initial whispers of establishing the Istanbul Carpet and Flooring Expo (CFE) Fair emerged during the first half of 2023 at the DOMOTEX Antalya exhibition. Notably, some prominent Turkish machine-made carpet and flooring manufacturers opted not to participate in DOMOTEX. Eventually, at the end of the first half of 2023, with the date and location of this event being confirmed, namely the Carpet and Flooring Expo (CFE) Fair, the whispers became definitive and publicized.
Istanbul CFE 2023, the International Machine-Made Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair welcomed visitors from December 4th to 8th, coinciding with Azar 14th to 17th on the Persian calendar. The exhibition took place at the Istanbul Expo Center, located in the Yesilkoy district. Visitors could explore the exhibition from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM daily, except for the closing day, when the exhibition hours were one hour shorter.
The CFE Istanbul Machine-Made Carpet and Flooring Exhibition was organized by two Turkish export associations, the Southeast Anatolia Carpet Exporters’ Association (GAHIB) and the Istanbul Carpet Exporters’ Association (İHİB), in collaboration with the exhibition organizer, TÜYAP TÜM FUARCILIK YAPIM A.Ş.
Turkey’s primary goal in hosting this exhibition is to showcase its strength in machine-made carpet manufacturing. Yutap, the manager of the company organizing the exhibition, stated in an interview that the goal is to create a dynamic and innovative event that will serve as a source of inspiration for future trends and fashion currents in interior design and layout, as well as to establish itself as a major and premier platform for the machine-made carpet and flooring industry.
The organizers of the Istanbul Carpet & Flooring Expo Fair 2023 have outlined a set of reasons for both exhibitors and visitors to attend CFE on the exhibition’s official website.
The statistics provided by the organizer of the Istanbul Carpet and Flooring Expo (CFE 2023) Fair indicate that before the event, it claimed to have received requests for visits from 74 different countries around the world. After its conclusion, it announced that it had visitors from 100 different countries worldwide.
The Istanbul CFE – Carpet & Flooring Expo Fair was held in 8 separate halls, with the participation of 400 exhibiting companies from 12 different countries worldwide. It can be said that over 80% of the exhibition booths at Istanbul CFE 2023 were occupied by Turkish companies, with approximately 60% of the booths belonging to companies from the city of Gaziantep. Iranian participants were all located in Hall 1, with an expansive area exceeding 6500 square meters.
In total, The Istanbul Carpet & Flooring Expo (CFE) Fair 2023 hosted 26 booths of Iranian companies. The companies present at the exhibition included:
In pursuit of its goal to establish itself as a premier industry hub and a driving force for innovation and trends in the carpet and flooring sector, the Carpet & Flooring Expo (CFE) Fair 2023 in Turkey invited a group of experts to speak on specific topics predetermined for each day of the exhibition. Every day of the exhibition, speeches were arranged in various areas to voice the biggest concerns or achievements somehow.
Some of the topics discussed in the speeches during the 4-day exhibition included interior design and decoration, weaving, modern and traditional carpet design, the application of artificial intelligence in traditional carpet registration and ideation, hand-woven carpets and weaving, digital registration of artworks, lifestyle and trend movements, sustainability in the carpet industry, necessary support for the current well-being of the carpet industry, and more.
The Istanbul Carpet & Flooring Expo (CFE) Fair 2023, like any other up-to-date event, defined a humanistic and beyond-commerce theme or objective for itself. Similar to its counterpart, the Domotex exhibition, the Istanbul CFE 2023 chose to declare “sustainability” as its main and noble goal, despite being a beautiful, dreamy yet less popular theme.
The topic of sustainability in the carpet industry, which includes the innovation of technology and carpet production materials to minimize damage to the Earth, reduce pollution, water and plastic consumption, and other things that slow down the process of damage, destruction, or increase the speed of global warming, fall into this category. But with all these beautiful words and promising slogans, to what extent do these exhibitions take real action towards these goals and messages?
The less popular theme of sustainability, producing environmentally friendly and green products are heartwarming slogans for the future of the Earth, but it can be said that not only was there almost no evidence of in the organization of the CFE Istanbul exhibition and the booths, but this theme was not even among the topics discussed in this event!
Beheshti Carpet is a Design and Production Company, that is a prominent name in international and domestic events, was also present at the (CFE 2023) Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair in Turkey.
Mohammad Beheshti, the CEO of Beheshti Carpet, had previously announced the participation of Beheshti Carpet at the (CFE 2023) Istanbul Carpet and Flooring Expo Fair during the Domotex exhibition in Antalya. He noted that Turkey, due to its freedom in importing machinery and the absence of unfair sanctions, has become one of Iran’s strongest competitors in the field of machine-made carpet exports. Turkey intends to maximize and monopolize the machine-made carpet export market through the CFE exhibition, aiming to eliminate other competitors from the scene. Turkey’s primary goal in this regard is to prevent any export deals on its soil from benefiting a third country.
Regarding the presence and continued participation of Beheshti Carpet in the Istanbul exhibition, Mohammad Beheshti stated: “Being present in the global competitive market is essential. Iranian manufacturers always lag behind n global and international markets, and if we intend to make a change, we must stay and strive. Being erased from the memory of the global market and withdrawing will not help us improve Iranian carpet exports. Beheshti Carpet will not leave the competition field empty for its rivals as long as it can be present and the space for operation is not poisoned.”
Mohammad Beheshti continued: “Participation in these international events, no matter how limited the event may be, will still have a return for the Iranian producer. The question that arises is the extent of the cost-effectiveness and return on investment in these events.”
With a bitter smile, Mohammad Beheshti added: “Beheshti Carpet will always continue to be present, create, and narrate the story of the Iranian carpet design. The essence of the Iranian carpet legend is resistance, being rooted, and blossoming.”
Mohammad Beheshti, the creator of the Beheshti Carpet brand, had an interview on the first day of the (CFE 2023) International Machine-Made Carpet & Flooring Expo Fair in Istanbul and talked about the manner and message of Beheshti Carpet’s presence at the Istanbul CFE 2023:
“Exhibition booths are not just a place to present and display the product! Brands must offer everything they have to the world. Everything they have, meaning the message they convey and deliver through carpet design, color palette and color design selection, material, and raw material selection, weaving fineness and precision, finishing, etc. It is the sum of these that reveals where the brand stands on the path of progress and reveals the next step, the brand’s future outlook and path.”
Mohammad Beheshti further added: “Beheshti Carpet will showcase its message at the (CFE 2023) Istanbul Carpet & Flooring Expo Fair through the unveiling and presenting the Modal Silk Carpet collections.” Explaining the above sentence, the CEO of Beheshti Carpet explained: “Silk carpets have been a symbol of power and wealth of Iranian carpets for many years.” In completing the concept of the richness of silk carpets, he added: “Wealth in the sense of the high price of silk carpets is a separate issue that even foreigners are aware of and is evident to everyone. However, what is meant by wealth in silk carpets is cultural wealth. The cultural wealth of silk carpets is an achievement that other countries, no matter how free and without limitations such as sanctions, cannot achieve even a fraction of.”
Mr. Mohammad Beheshti further spoke specifically about the Modal Silk or Plant Silk, which opened another window into the Beheshti Carpet brand’s perspective at the Istanbul CFE 2023 Fair. Mohammad Beheshti explained about the Modal Silk used in Beheshti Carpets’ collections: “Modal or Plant Silk, which is used as the pile thread or raw material for Beheshti Silk Carpets, is a type of precious, innovative, and environmentally friendly silk that reflects the Beheshti Carpets brand’s vision in offering up-to-date, green, and environmentally friendly products.”
Beheshti Carpet is present at this exhibition with a collection consisting of 17 different collections in various styles, colors, and patterns, of which 9 collections out of these 17 are made from bamboo silk fibers.
Among Beheshti silk collections, the All-Silk “Negarin” collection, which is a recreation of Iran’s museum pieces, the “Unique” collection, a modern-vintage piece with a unique color identity, the “Amethyst” collection with a modern style that presents a fresh concept of contrasting brilliance of colors, and the “Mahoor” collection, the newest collection of Beheshti Carpet that recreates authentic Iranian eternal patterns, have attracted the most attention.
Among these, the Silk-Acrylic “Narcissus” collection in a neo-classical style once again proved that genuine works never lose their value and are always valuable and popular.
Mohammad Beheshti, CEO of Beheshti Carpet, said in his critique of the first edition of the Istanbul CFE 2023: “The hall dedicated to Iranian brands was one of the weakest halls, and it cannot be said that the conditions were unbiased.
The placement of the booths was also unsatisfactory. Having the booths of Iranian producers next to each other led to comparisons between Iranians rather than with the global market, which confused foreign customers and, in a way, ignored the quality and variety of Iranian products.
The psychological effect of Turkey’s strategy at the Fair was the competition among Iranians within the Istanbul CFE Fair, while Iranians should be working together in international forums, not competing.
Mohammad Beheshti continued, expressing his dissatisfaction with the organizers of international exhibitions in Iran: “International exhibitions in Iran have no international status, and if they are compared to the weakest events outside Iran, they cost us even more despite the facilities they provide. It is hoped that the voice of the producers will reach the exhibition organizers and officials so that we can also have a return on investment in domestic events and make significant strides in the field of exports.”
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