The second edition of the highly successful international coir festival launched last year will be held at the EMS Stadium, Alappuzha from February 4 to 9.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Coir Development Director K. Madanan said Coir Kerala 2012, as the event had been named, would be an exhibition cum sale event divided widely on four themes, which would be knowledge dissemination and interaction, development, marketing and coir. There would be separate international and national pavilions.
Already, over 60 international delegates had assured of their presence while 110 delegates from other Indian states had registered themselves. The number of national delegates was expected to go above 200 and a majority of the 225 stalls that hade been readied for the event were already booked, the official said.
Recalling the overwhelming success of the event held last year, Mr. Madanan said whatever initial apprehensions that international buyers had were done away with last year itself, which was why there was an increased interest in the event this time around. The coir sector here too had changed over the last one year, with lots of diversification coming in. Also, the sector had stepped beyond its traditional markets to countries where there were hitherto no coir products available at all. These, including the Latin American countries and those in Africa, were now turning out to be highly potential areas for marketing and country-specific products were being identified.
The coir festival, which would be coordinated by the National Coir Research and Management Institute (NCMRI) would have its welcome committee office inaugurated on January 21 by Union Minister of State for Power K.C. Venugopal in the presence of G. Sudhakaran, MLA.
A number of competitions and cultural programmes too were being organized alongside the event, he said, adding that a number of national and international seminars too would be part of the event.
