When you venture into clothing shopping in Iran nowadays, you’re met with a perplexing scenario: Iranian jeans fetching around 1,500,000 tomans, whereas authentic Stock & Hank jeans are priced at a mere 400,000 tomans in the same market! Unsurprisingly, customers are gravitating towards the more affordable imported jeans, causing a crippling blow to Iran’s domestic garment industry.
Majid Eftekhari, a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Garment Manufacturers and Exporters, voiced his concern:
“The clothing market has essentially become a stronghold of foreign entities. Large-scale clothing importers effortlessly promote and sell their illicitly imported products without facing any consequences. In essence, our nation has turned into a satellite market for five countries in the clothing sector, flooding our markets with counterfeit goods. It’s bewildering for consumers to witness Iranian jeans priced at 1.5 million tomans, while smuggled foreign jeans are available for only 400,000 tomans.”
Maysam Aghajanpour, head of Babol’s Tailors Union, expressed grave concerns regarding the absence of a comprehensive strategy to bolster domestic manufacturing of suitable clothing. He remarked: “There’s a significant apprehension regarding the management of the clothing sector within the country. However, there’s a glaring absence of a comprehensive and targeted program aimed at supporting domestic manufacturers in producing suitable clothing to overcome this crisis.”
Saeed Jalali, the secretary of Iran’s textile and clothing production and export union, attributed the hindrance in combating smuggling to the $2.7 billion clothing mafia, which operates through 110 stores across the nation. He asserted: “The $2.7 billion clothing mafia, with 110 stores nationwide, poses a significant obstacle in our efforts to combat smuggling.”
According to official statistics from the Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling, approximately 2.7 billion dollars’ worth of clothing is being smuggled, while official sources and customs report only 60 million dollars in clothing imports.
This glaring disparity, with a ratio of 98% to 2%, underscores the pervasive nature of clothing smuggling, which has become ingrained in the culture. Consequently, brands that lack prominence in their home countries are gaining notoriety in Iran.
The regime’s strategy of importing inexpensive foreign materials, significantly undercutting domestic prices, constitutes a deceitful economic tactic known as “Dumping.”
This tactic mirrors the historical exploitation experienced by Iran, notably the collapse of the first Iranian match-making industries in Tabriz and Tehran at the hands of Tsarist Russia. A similar calamity befell Iran’s domestic sugar industry thereafter.
Presently, the ruling mullahs and their criminal networks are implementing a comparable colonial policy by flooding the market with bulk imports of foreign clothing, effectively driving domestic producers out of business.
Consequently, many Iranians have labeled the ruling mullahs as “invaders” due to their actions. This raises the poignant question: what atrocity have the mullahs spared Iran from that is less egregious than the crimes of an invading and colonizing force?
