KOCHI:
Tamil Nadu continues to hold the top position in the matter of production and supply of coir fibre in the country. The state is being depended up on to meet the export needs of coir and coir products, especially the value added product manufacturing sector in and around Alappuzha in Kerala.
The severe drought, akin to the one happened in the early part of the current decade, experienced in Tamil Nadu in the last summer has taken a heavy toll on the production of coconuts and functioning of the fibre extraction mills. Most of the units had to face either closure or drastic reduction of production due to husk shortage.
The fibre prices soared high registering a whopping increase by 60 to 80 percent. Tamil Nadu, with an estimated coconut production of 5129 million nuts, has achieved around 90% utilisation of coconut husk for coir industry. The major share of coir pith and coir fibre exports from the country is from Tamil Nadu.
The requirements of coir fibre and coir yarn for the value added products manufacturing units in Kerala estimated around 700 MTs per day are supplied by Tamil Nadu. The coconut producing regions in Tamil Nadu has been recently reeling under severe drought resulting in heavy loss of coconut trees and crops. Being a tropical crop, coconut trees require large amount of rainfall normally received during the monsoon seasons.
Coconut husk collection and further processing is being pursued in an organised manner in the Thanjavur, Pudukotai, Thiruvallur, Trichi, Madurai, Salem, Dharmapuri, Erode, Karur, Tirupur, Coimbatore and Vellore Districts of Tamil Nadu. As many as 1200 mills are engaged in coir fibre production around Pollachi and surrounding areas of Coimbatore District.
C P Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Coir Board informed that he has been to these production centres frequently to take stock of the situations from time to time. He said that the coconut producing regions of Tamil Nadu is getting good amount of rainfall this season. He added that the production cycles of nuts will be restored soon making it possible to meet the raw material requirements in full.
He added that the raw material prices will soon start to recede paving the way for restoration of massive production and employment in the coir industry. The Chairman stated that the endeavours of Coir Board in the next long term Plan period is to go for a quantum jump in raw material utilisation and production of coir in States like Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, West Bengal etc., which have very good raw material availability.
Coir Board, in addition to the Plan programmes being continued over the years has now launched a new scheme titled Coir Industry Technology Upgradation Scheme (CITUS) to promote larger investments in coir sector. The scheme, which is open to all categories of investors, offer financial support of the Central Government up to Rs.2.50 crores or 25% of the cost of investment in Plant and Machinery whichever is less. This new scheme eyes on total modernisation of the sector making it attractive to the unemployed youth.
The Chairman, Coir Board informed that for providing hand holding support to the smaller players and house hold units in coir sector, the Board is implementing the scheme titled ‘Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries’ (SFURTI) with 100% Government funding support for soft interventions and 75% Government support for setting up of Common Facility Centres (CFCs). The scheme which is framed under the cluster based approach has been currently under implementation in 20 clusters spread over the coir producing States of the country.
The CFCs of two of such clusters in Tamil Nadu inaugurated by Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for MSME on 18.05.2018, at Kangayam and Palladom. Chairman, Coir Board opined that further fine tuning of innovative products like coir wood, popularisation of the uses of coir geotextiles in India and abroad are taken up by the Board in a vigorous manner. These efforts, together with the steps taken to bring coir products under eco-label would certainly lead to a phenomenal growth of the industry in the country.
