Coir Board to promote domestic market

Kozhikode, May 30 : The Coir Board is embarking on various steps aimed at promoting domestic market for environment friendly coir and coir products in the country, its chairman A C Jose today said.

Talking to newspersons after the inauguration of a training cum service centre here, he said although the coir products had huge export market, no concrete step was taken to market the product locally.

Stating that the Board would not act as a trader, he, however, said it would take various steps, including setting up of service and sales centres towards achieving this goal.

The centre would work as a catalyst for the development of coir industry for utilizing the raw material potential and thereby generating employment in the coconut producing rural areas, he said.

The coir industry provided employment to more than five lakh people, out of which 80 per cent were women, he claimed.

The Board would also organise skill development programmes in the production of coir yarn, coir mats, mattings, carpets for generating employment and to improve the earnings of the artisans. It would also function as a technology transfer centre, he said.

The sales outlets would procure coir products from small scale manufacturing units and cooperative societies for marketing at competitive prices.

He said few coir cooperative units were engaged in producing the coir pith manure and the Board would take immediate steps to expand the sector.

Stating that Kerala coir industry is facing financial crisis due to lacklusture demand from the market, he urged the state government to procure the products through Kerala Coir Marketing Fedeation to salvage the sector.

The Board had opened its fifth regional office at Kannur on May 29 to cater to the needs of the industry in the state, Lakshadweep, Goa and Maharashtra.

The other regional offices were at Bangalore, Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar.

UNI