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TRADE FAIR
PHOTO: CAIR & FAIR
62 I / 2023
India Carpet Expo 2022, Bhadohi (India)
Trade fair premiere in Carpet City
The city of Bhadohi and the surrounding region are of great stature within the international car- pet industry, as a very substantial percentage of India’s total hand-made carpet production stems from this area. It makes perfect sense that the international carpet industry gathers right here at the India Carpet Expo to discover all the new products coming out, but in a certain way it was a premiere, despite being the 43rd such event held in Bhadohi. The autumn edition of the trade fair – very important for Indian carpet exports – was held this time in Varanasi, nearly 50 kilometres to the east (from 15 - 18 October). Varanasi, after all, has an airport, major hotel capacity and things of sightseeing-interest for tourists.
Moreover, Bhadohi has the Carpet Expo Mart – a spacious exhibition centre designed specifically with the needs of carpet exporters in mind. Com-
pleted just a few years ago, the 5,500 sqm loca- tion opened its doors for the first time this past October, to more than 200 international carpet purchasers who registered to attend and view the product assortments of nearly 250 exhibiting suppliers. Perhaps for pandemic-related reasons however, the show was less interesting than it has been on many previous occasions, with only a few things that are genuinely new.
And as at any premiere event, not everything went smoothly at all times. The exhibitors on the upper level, for example, were confronted with non-functioning lifts, so they had to carry their products by hand up the stairs to display at their stands. Also, the local hotel capacity is still insuf- ficient for a trade fair with significant attendance, thus many visitors had a substantial distance to travel from Varanasi. This situation in combina-