Coir exports up 25.64 pc, touch Rs 804 cr in 2009-10

KOCHI: Coir exports touched Rs 804 crore in 2009-10, surpassing the Rs 700-crore target for the fiscal, the Coir Board said today.

Volume-wise, 2,94,508.05 tonnes of coir and its products were exported in 2009-10, up by 47.31 per cent from the previous fiscal when the outbound-shipments were 1,99,924.94 tonnes.

In value terms, the growth is 25.64 per cent. In 2008-09, exports were worth Rs 639 crore.

USA continued to be the largest market accounting for 35 per cent of exports of Indian coir products. Indian coir is exported to over 100 countries.

While non-traditional products such as coir pith, coir fibre, PVC-tufted mats and curled coir achieved positive growth, traditional products such as handloom mats and handloom matting showed either negative growth or stagnation.

Board Chairman V S Vijayaraghavan said that necessary steps were being taken to secure higher export incentives for coir, on par with jute products. Better sops would take coir export trade to higher levels in the years to come, he said. Expressing concern over decline in export of traditional products, he said efforts were on for technology upgrade to boost sales of coir handloom products.