CHENDAMANGALAM: Sales was nowhere near achieving even a 10 per cent target this Onam. As is the case with most businesses in Kerala, the deluge washed off the high hopes of the handloom sector too. The Handloom Weavers Cooperative Societies in Ernakulam district will have to bear huge losses as the stocks for Onam sale lay inundated at godowns during the floods.
Last year, the famed Chendamangalam Handloom could achieve sales of more than Rs 7 crore during the Onam season, said T S Baby, a state committee member of the Handloom Employees Union and president of the Paravoor Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society.This year, sales could not touch a margin of `1 crore even after Onam. The losses from the floods and low sales would be close to `15 crore for Chendamangalam Handloom.
“Around 80 pc of sales for the handloom sector takes places during the Onam season,” Baby said. “In the floods, two of the weavers’ cooperative societies-run manufacturing units were completely washed off and stocks for the Onam sale lay inundated. Usually, Onam brings financial benefits to weavers. But this has been one of the worst Onam seasons any weaver in the district could have imagined.”
Loans are another concern for cooperative societies and weavers. “The financial benefits during the Onam season enable weavers to pay off loan dues,” Sojan P A, secretary of Chendamangalam Weavers Cooperative Society, said. “This year, neither cooperative societies nor individual weavers are in a position to repay loans. The Centre and the state government should consider the situation and give some kind of waiver this time.”
Fabrics and clothing worth as much as `85 lakh, produced by the Chendamangalam Weavers Cooperative Society, were damaged in godown.Similarly, yarn banks are also in trouble. “The normal yarn worth `50 lakh and `10-lakh worth yarn for manufacturing school uniforms was lost to floodwater. As cotton yarn gets damaged from water, it cannot be used,” said an officer with a yarn bank in Chendamangalam. Richin, a quality controller at a handloom manufacturing unit, said an agency had checked the possibility of recycling fabrics and yarn.“Since there was heavy slush on the fabrics and clothing, it cannot be recycled. We are checking other possibilities,” he said.