V.S. Vijayaraghavan, Chairman of Coir Board, has said that the board has targeted Rs.1,000 crore from coir exports during the financial year 2010-11 after making a record Rs.810 crore in 2009-10. The target set by the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises for the previous financial year was Rs.700 crore.
He told presspersons here on Thursday that despite the global recession, coir exports touched 2,94,508 tonnes that year, growing by 47 per cent in quantity and 25 per cent in earnings from 1,99,925 tonnes and Rs.639 crore during 2008-09.
He said the U.S. continued to be the top coir-importer, with an intake of 35 per cent of the Indian coir products, followed by Germany and the U.K. among the 105 countries to which Indian coir products were now exported.
He said the domestic market saw record sales, with the 31 showrooms of the board and the sales depots earning Rs.14.06 crore as against the targeted Rs.14 crore. To exploit the vast potential of the domestic market, the board would launch e-marketing.
He said the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry had approved the board as the nodal agency for the supply of coir and coir products to Union government agencies and public sector undertakings. The advantage was that the board would be able to organise the supply of coir and coir products meeting BIS standards and ensure timely dispatch of materials to the consignees.
The chairman said that to popularise coir and coir products, 2010 would be celebrated as the “Year of Coir.”
He said the Union government had approved a Rs.243-crore plan, with Rs.99 crore as subsidy, for a coir-centric credit-linked scheme for the development of infrastructure of micro and small-scale coir-processing units. As many as 7,200 coir-processing units would get assistance.
He said the board had taken steps for implementing the scheme in Palakkad district and 100 coir-based units would be assisted under the scheme during 2010-11.
