Iranian industry is classified into three general groups; big industry, small-scale industry and handicrafts.

SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRY

The small-scale industrial workshops are scattered throughout the cities and rural areas. The rural ones operate principally along traditional family lines, and 81 percent of their products are textiles including fine carpets, coarse carpets, klims, mats etc. There are an estimated 1.2 million small rural workshops. Their share of the value-added to the entire economy is negligible, but they are useful in assisting rural households to make ends meet.

The case is rather different in urban areas, and small workshops play an important role in most fields. The textiles workshop account for 35 percent of total value-added of the small-scale industry. Food products constitute 10 percent of total output and 30 percent of total value added. Machinery, tools and metal-works turn out 8 percent of total products and account for 14 percent of total value-added of the small-scale industry. The most important workshops of the latter branch of industry are the ironworks and turneries.

HANDICRAFTS

Ninety percent of the raw materials used for production of handicrafts is obtained domestically. That is an important characteristic of this industry. There are no precise figure of the number of handicrafts workshops, mainly because they are included in small-scale industrial workshops.

Handicrafts output, notwithstanding carpets, is comparatively low. Carpet weaving, which involves 4-5 million people, is still the most important branch of the Iranian handicrafts industry, although it has been facing a constant crisis in the past few years, a prompted by strong fluctuations in exports and competition by machine-made carpets and floor covering.

The responsible government agencies have been endeavoring to change the orientation of handicrafts workshops from producing decorative and ornamental items to turning out consumer goods. They have achieved some degree of success too.

The Construction Crusade and Agriculture ministries, furthermore, have tried to promote rural industries by increasing government aid, providing training, raw materials and tools. Forming co-operatives to produce and directly market the handicrafts produced, has been encouraged as a way of earning more income by producers.

BIG INDUSTRY

Industrial plants employing more than 10 workers fall under this category. According to the latest statistics available, there were 6,098 such plants in 1993. The breakdown of the number of plants involved in each industry is as follows:

¨ non-metal mineral based products (other than oil and coal), 2,142;

¨ textiles, clothing & leather, 957;

¨ food, drinks & tobacco, 923;

¨ machinery, equipment, tools & metallic products, 1,047;

¨ chemicals, 547;

¨ paper, cardboard, printing & binding, 199;

¨ wood and wooden products, 122;

¨ basic metallic products, 108;

¨ miscellaneous, 53.

Industrial A total of 648,671 worker were employed in big plants in 1993. The

Employment machinery industry had the highest number of workers (158,186), followed by the textile (158,007), food (89,347) and non-metal mineral-based products groups (80,779).

The food, drinks and tobacco industry has the highest share of products value, followed by the machinery, equipment, tools and metallic products industry, and chemicals. The highest concentration of industrial plants is in the Tehran province, 49.7 percent. Isfahan, Azerbaijan, Fars, Khuzistan and Khorassan provinces follow exclusively.