KOCHI: There was a glorious past for the weavers in God’s Own Country which even took pride in having one of the oldest traditional industries in the country, with men and women weavers weaving their way of life. Now, the Kochi-headquartered Coir Board is all set to outsource the handloom coir weaving work to weavers in the North and North-East states, despite there being an exodus of migrant labourers to the thriving job markets in Kerala.
But this is not on account of the dwindling patronage for weaving in Kerala, which provides direct and indirect employment to around three lakh weavers.
In an interview to Express, Coir Board chairman C P Radhakrishnan said there is a huge demand for Kerala handloom coir mats and mattings in international and domestic markets and even after this, the coir mat exports from the country has been on the decline in recent times owing to matters related to its cost-effectiveness.
“The fact is that the wages in Kerala are quite high when compared to the weaving cost in other parts of the country. So we have mooted an idea of outsourcing the weaving work to weavers in the North and North-East states. As part of the project, we would set up coir fibre banks in Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, and Guwahati and supply the fibre to weavers in the region after imparting basic training to them. Later, the finished products would be brought back here and exported to various destinations,” he said.
The Coir Board is also in the final stages of reaching an understanding with the Railway Ministry for supplying coir composite or coir wood, a kind of wood is made using coir fibre bonded with thermosetting adhesive, which is a effective replacement for wood and plywood, to Railways in order to replace the wood items on trains.
The segment has the potential for Rs 1,800 crore business and the Coir Board is intending to make use of the opportunity to raise the revenue of the Board and boost the traditional industry.
The chairman also said the Board had held preliminary discussions with the Railways and soon there would be a formal understanding on supplying coir wood to Railways.
The Board is also pinning greater hopes on coir geo-textiles, which is effective for checking soil erosion, and recently received the Indian Road Congress’ approval for use of coir geo-textiles in rural road construction, the export of which has registered 25.2 percent growth in the first eight months of the current fiscal.
Coir pith, exports of which registered a growth of 21.7 percent in value during the same period, is widely used as a natural organic plant growing material in and outside the country for vegetable cultivation.
Besides, the Coir Board has almost improved nutrient content of coir pith to make it a replacement for urea, he said.
Meanwhile, the Coir Board has registered a growth 8.7 growth in total export revenue and 22.3 per cent rise in export quantity in the first eight months of the current fiscal, netting a cumulative export turnover of Rs 1,132.46 crore.
The Board has also achieved a record export turnover of`1,901 crore in the last fiscal year.