The Hindu Business Line : Call to popularise coir products globally

THE share of coir and coir products in the global market has been on the decline following stiff competition from synthetic and other natural fibres and slow pace of modernisation of the industry.

Therefore, to compete in the global market and to increase the market share it has become a necessity for all the coconut producing countries of Asia Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) to form a strategic alliance for the development of coir industry, Mr Christy Fernandez, Chairman, Coir Board, told Business Line.

The market share for coir is far from its potential and has affected the producers and their livelihood, he said. The coconut industry as a whole is at cross roads with intense competition, increasing cost of production and falling prices, he said.

The coir trade in the country provided gainful employment to an estimated five lakh people in the country of which around three lakh are in Kerala. There are over 9,000 manufacturing units registered with the board while thousands of coir yarn manufacturing and fibre extraction units, mostly household, are spread over the country. He said new units were expected to come up in Goa, Maharashtra and Tripura which had the potential.

India and Sri Lanka together contribute 90 per cent of the global coir production.

According to FAO sources, only 10 per cent of the coconut husk is being used for fibre extraction in the world amounting to an estimated 0.5 million tonne of coir. Indian production of brown fibre had gone up to 2.51 lakh tonnes in 2001 from 1.49 lakh tonne in 1996. Globally, it had increased to 3.17 lakh tonnes from 2.13 lakh tonnes. The white fibre for yarn production had dropped from 1.28 tonnes in 1996 to 1.10 lakh tonnes in 2001. With this, India is the single largest producer of fibre, both brown and white, with 3.61 lakh tonnes. However, only 30 per cent of the fibres entered the world trade, he said.

According to Mr Fernandez, there has been no comprehensive study to know the actual global demand for coir products and demand-supply gap, if any. The USP of coir as an eco-friendly product for varied applications had not been fully harnessed, he said. Diversified products as wood substitutes, packaging material, garden articles, automobile accessories, and as a long term biodegradable geotextiles for soil bio-engineering have not been popularised for commercial exploitation, he said.

It is high time to think of setting up an institutionalised mechanism for bringing the coir producing countries of the world together under an international agreement similar to such arrangements existing for other commodities as coffee, rubber, spices etc. It could be under the treaty section of the UN and can be even for a specific period.

``An international forum of this kind can promote product growth and diversification through research, development of market and human resources, quality improvement, transfer of technology and exchange of market intelligence. It may undertake generic promotion programmes, help prevent unhealthy competition, offer directions for production including a supply side management and take up issues of common interest''.

At the same time, he said, APCC should take up the initiative for bringing the coir producing countries together under one umbrella for common good. Alternatively, India as the major producer of coir and coir products could take the initiative, he added.

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