MADURAI: While many industries recorded a dip in the export of their products after Covid-19, the coir and coir products from India registered an all-time-high record of 11.63 lakh metric tonne, worth Rs 3,700 crore, during the pandemic period of 2020-21. Thoothukudi VOC port handled a whopping 57 per cent of the country’s total coir exports, followed by Kochi and Chennai ports that handled 22 and 20 per cent of the total export respectively.
Chairman of Coir Board D Kuppuramu stated that the coir export has recorded a growth rate of 17.6 per cent in quantity and 37 per cent in value when compared to the previous year. While the coir export business fetched a revenue of Rs 2,757 crore (9.89 lakh metric tonne) in 2019-20, the country has earned Rs 3,778.98 crore in 2020-21, mentioned Kuppuramu in his statement. He added that the growth rate of 37 per cent in terms of value was an all-time-high in the history of coir exports in India.
Coir pith generated the highest share of 50.80 per cent of the total export of coir products from India, followed by tufted mats with a 21.3 per cent share in the income generated through export. In 2020-21, 106 countries imported coir and coir products from India, with the USA being the top importer and China the second.
Import, export competitor
Commenting on the increased exports of coir products during the pandemic period, Kuppuramu told Express that before the pandemic, China that imported coir products from India and exported them as value-added products was a tough competitor in the coir export business.
Due to the change in paradigm in trade relations with China, India emerged as the next best alternative and as a more reliable exporter among world nations. As a result, the coir export business in India touched an all-time high, he added. Kuppuramu added the Coir Board aims to earn Rs 7,000 crore through exports in two years.
A Madurai-based 49-year-old coir exporter said that while Tamil Nadu accounts for about 50 per cent of the coir products exported, nearly 90 per cent of them are produced at Pollachi and the rest in Theni, Dindigul, and Tenkasi.
Demand in markets
The Coordinator of Business Information Centre M Jeganmohan said that coir piths enjoy perennial demand in the international market. “As coir piths serve as media for cultivation/growth of crops and plants, most foreign countries use coir piths extensively in agricultural and gardening activities as they facilitate soil-less farming,” he stated
B Rangaraj, a manufacturer-cum-exporter of Coir mat in Pollachi town said, “The first reason for the increase in the export during the pandemic could be because, after Covid, the people in the Western countries might have become more conscious about the hygiene and might be changing door mats frequently. The second reason being, an increase in the cost of raw materials leads to an increase in the price. It results in 20 per cent additional growth in annual turnover. The annual turnover of my unit stood at Rs 15 crore and it leapt to Rs 30 crore after the outbreak of Covid.”
Rs 3,700 crore was the value of the coir products exported during the financial year 2020-2021
(with inputs from M Saravanan @ Coimbatore)