Faced with stiff competition from synthetic products such as plastics, the Coir Board has developed a four-pronged strategy of modernisation, mechanisation, diversification and commercialisation with which it is eying greater revenues. In an interview to Kirtika Suneja, Coir Board chairman Prof G Balachandran says the traditional coir industry has now diversified into new products that need to be popularised to take the industry to the next level. Excerpts:
What has propelled the Board to diversify into unconventional products such as coir wood and geo-textiles?
Coir has been a traditional industry and coir products in India have largely been about doormats, mattresses and at best, embroidered gift articles. Our recent stress on diversification has helped us find stronger market for manure from coir pith besides coir wood, which is a substitute of wood from the fibre.
Due to this, a new phenomenon has emerged wherein China has imported fibre worth Rs 250 crore from India this year compared to Rs 200 crore last year. We are trying to do value addition in the fibre and are developing new items that need to be popularised.
What are the new items that the Board is developing? How will they be be made accessible?
We are going to focus on three items ? coir wood, geo-textiles and organic manure. Coir wood is stronger than teakwood besides being water-proof and termite-free. These three items will be first sold in the domestic market, especially north India, through our outlets. We have already opened 30 stores and plan to open 100 more in the next three months and then scale up the number to 1,000 next year. Besides, we also plan to blend coir with jute, silk and other fibres to make blended fibres thinner than coir.
How much revenue does the Board expect to earn with these products?
We are working on a four-pronged strategy of modernisation, mechanisation, diversification and commercialisation with which we estimate export revenues of Rs 2,000 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 5,000 crore from the domestic market in the next five years. Our exports have touched the Rs 1,600-crore mark till now but the share domestic market is less than 5% in our revenues.
Apart from new coir products, what other diversification has the Board planned?
We are is planning to set up a coir pith-based 10 MW power plant in Kerala in six months, which will use waste pith. Also, we are in talks with the government to allow public-private partnerships for producing all the new items in the pipeline.
