The acute shortage of coir fibre in Kerala is likely to be reduced to a great extent with the introduction of the new coir fibre extraction machine developed by the Central Coir Research Institute (CCRI) of the coir board. The machine helps in instantaneous extraction of coir fibre from green husk thus paving way for higher utilisation of coir fibre in Kerala besides considerably reducing its cost, coir board chairman VS Vijayaraghavan said.
?The commercialization of the machine is bound to revolutionize the industry already affected by shortage coupled with mounting cost of fibre. Non-availability of adequate quantities of green husks in Tamil Nadu and the unprecedented export of coir fibre to China is causing great problems for the export industry,? he said.
With China and Korea continuously consuming enormous volumes of curled coir and fibre from India, the domestic manufacturing sector is facing a shortage of raw materials, Coir Board sources told FE. De-husking of coconuts and extracting fibre from it is a time consuming and labor intensive process. Export units based in Kerala transport coir fibre from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka due to the shortage of de-fibring units in Kerala.
?The increasing trend in the export of coir fibre to China may result in serious problems to the indigenous industry. It has already pushed up the prices of coir fibre to abnormal levels?, T A Kaleelur Rahman, president of the Cochin Coir Merchants? Association told FE.
China and Korea mainly imports lesser quality fibre from India and this has adverse impact on the availability of quality coir fibre in the Indian market, he added. ?Processors are not interested in producing high quality brown fibre required for the production of rugs, mats and carpets, he said.
Figures provided by the coir board for the period of April-September 2009-10, reveals that export of curled coir has gone up by 245% in volume and 427% in value.