Coir Board primed to strengthen and create a new eon of coir fibre

Coir Board, established by the Central Government for the promotion and development of the coir industry as well as the export and marketing of coir and coir products, has set extensive plans to strengthen the coir sector with innovative and eco-friendly safe technologies.

The technologies and machineries developed by the Coir Board helped improve the different areas of application of coir benefiting over 7 lakh workers in the sector with over 80 percent being women.

The Board has also established the Central Coir Research Institute at Kalavoor in Alappuzha and Central Institute of Coir Technology in Bangalore, for undertaking, assisting and encouraging scientific, technological and economic research in the field of coir and coir products.

The Planning Commission has given its approval for Rejuvenation, Modernisation and Technology Upgradation of Coir industry (REMOTE) revised scheme of the Coir Board, intended for the modernisation of the existing coir units and the renovation of the industry.

The scheme will be launched in the revised format. The new scheme will envisage more wages for the workers and there will be the formation of market consortiums for the marketing of the coir products.

To bring forth a revolution in coir weaving, the Central Coir Research Institute at Kalavoor has designed and fabricated a versatile pneumatic loom – Anupam- for weaving different kinds of mats, carpets etc. It offers high efficiency and even women workers can use it.

Another offspring from the CCRI stable is the modernised mobile husk defibering machine (Vajra), which can ease the shortage of coir fibre in the state to a great extent. Other products from coir includes coir ply, ornaments, coir geo textiles and coir pith.

The Board conducted an international roadshow from Kanyakumari to Kashmir titled ‘Coir Kranthi Express’ – a multi-axle bus displaying over 300 coir products to create awareness on the coir sector. The exhibition covered over 22 states in 100 days. Celebratory coins of the Coir Board were also released to add a bit of texture to its diamond jubilee celebrations.

Coir skin, a cloth-like medium developed by the Coir Board, is a new base for painting different types of pictures. The framed pictures, printed on coir skin, have been receiving increasingly wide acceptance.

The coir and coir products have been exported to over 110 countries with US being the major destination. As the international trend being towards everything natural, coir – considered as the fibre of future – is finding acceptance as a chic, fashionable option for interior designing.

The International Coir Museum, a first-of-its-kind in the world is set up as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Coir Board at Kalavoor in Alappuzha, highlights the different phases of the coir sector. The museum is a treasure house to a wide range of information on the various milestones of the coir sector. Also on display are various looms and mach.

The Coir Board is primed to create a new eon in the development of the coir fibre, known to the world as the ‘Golden Fibre.’