CHENNAI: The Coir Board has plans to modernise its showrooms and sales depots so as to attract more footfalls. Also on the cards is to increase its exports.
Modernised showrooms like the recently inaugurated outlet in Thiruvananthapuram, will be established at Patna, Jammu, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chennai, and Tirupur. All of them will be equipped for digital payments.
According to sources, during 2016-17, the country exported 9.57 lakh metric tonnes of coir products worth Rs. 2,281.65 crore to 115 countries, with China accounting for 40 % of the total sales. The target for 2017- 18 is fixed at Rs. 2,300 crore.
Mr. C. P. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Coir Board, said that the board is in the process of developing coir wood houses for warriors positioned in extreme climatic regions. "These tent-like houses can be dismantled in 3 hours and assembled in as many hours. The natural thermostatic property of the coir wood will help keep them warm during times of snow and ice and cool when the temperature tends to rise. Research is under way," he added.
The Coir Board has initiated measures to promote the manufacture of coir-based handicrafts. Efforts are on to establish common facility centres across the country under the scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFRUT).
Several hundreds of small-scale manufacturers and coir workers are expected to benefit from these manufacturing clusters that would be equipped to produce coir needled felt, handicrafts, coir panels, geo-textiles and coir pith.
