Coir industry poised to grow: Board

KOCHI: The coir industry in India is poised to scale new heights in the next 10 years, earning more foreign exchange and generating employment opportunities, the Coir Board has said.

The diverse usage of coir products and its biodegradable nature has helped it in carving out an important position in local and global market, Board Chairman A C Jose said.

Coir products being exported to more than 80 countries in the world. The export volume and value has increased noticeably and there has been a paradigm shift in the product mix at the primary production level.

The global production of coir is estimated at 510,000 MTs, of which the share of India is 76 per cent. Though India and Sri Lanka dominate in the sector, India enjoys a covetable position in the trading of coir yarn and value-added products.

The labour intensive processing technologies adopted in the Indian coir sector provide employment opportunities to more than half-a-million workers, of which 80 per cent are women.

The average utilisation of coconut husk in India for processing is only around 39 per cent of the total availability and the production of coir fibre in the country was around 400,000 MT during 2005-06, he said.

It is expected that during the end of the 11th Five Year plan, the production of fibre will touch 710,000 MT, he said.

Jose said the industry is labour-intensive and the enhanced utilisation of raw material to 60 per cent will lead to higher employment generation from the present level to 0.8 million workers by the close of 11th Five Year Plan.

The export of coir and coir products during the past two decades had been showing an increasing trend, he said adding during 2005-06 the value of export was Rs 508 crores, while in the last fiscal the export had touched an all-time high of Rs 605.17 crore, a 24 per cent jump in quantity and 19 per cent in terms of value.

The modernisation of the coir industry has been slow specially in the spinning and product-manufacturing sector. The major reasons attributed to this were the apprehended threat of displacement of labour, he said.

The introduction of low-cost motorised spinning wheels have contributed to the production of quality yarn.

Board had also developed technology to convert the coir pith into value-added organic manure. It had also introduced machineries for various activities with the objective to reduce the drudgery of the labour engaged in the sector, to improve the quality, productivity and workers' earnings.

One important non-conventional product from the coir industry is the coir geo-textiles commonly being used in soil bio-engineering applications, he said.

Jose said the research and development efforts of the board have been successful in developing a coir composite, which could substitute wood, plywood and MDF boards.

Sustained technological interventions will help upgrade the quality, productivity, working environment and wage-earning structure, which will lead the Indian coir industry to a bright future, he said.