Introduction

The coir industry of Tamil Nadu comprises of the workers, manufacturers,intermediaries,

merchant exporters and manufacturing exporters as its stakeholders. On the entire 32 Districts of
Tamil Nadu, the towns like Coimatore, Chennai, Dindigul, !anyakumari, "adurai and
Thoothukudi ha#e more numer of coir exporters and manufacturers. The places like Thirupur,
$alem and Thirunel#eli ha#e more numer of coir workers. $imilarly the intermediaries are
pre#ailing in almost all parts of the state where the trading usiness takes place. %hen the
usiness output is studied, it showed a cyclic gap etween the manufacturers, traders and
exporters pur#iew. There is more market for the coir in the gloal market and go#ernment will
help the coir exporters, due to its approachaility in fa#ouring the soil, sa#ing the uni#erse from
gloal warming &'ntony, 2()*+. "anufacturers say that they are
happy to do domestic usiness and the merchant exporters say that there is dull export usiness.
The coir pith usiness of ,ollachi is facing its downturn recently. -n the year 2()2 the exports to
China, .urope, /ermany, 0apan and !orea ha#e amounted to a yearly turno#er of *(( crores.
1ecently it cannot meet its demand due to prolems in price fixation, raw material shortage,
ad#erse climatic conditions and non cooperation among the workers &.ditorial, 2()3+.
Background in coir industry development
Coir Industry, the most important Industry of Kerala, is an agro-
based rural industry which provides sustenance to 6-8n lakhs
families in the thickly populated coastal belt of Kerala. bout half
a million people are directly employed in the industry and 8!" of
these workers are women from the rural sector.
India ranks in the world in terms of production of Coconut
and e#traction of coir $bre from coconut husk. Coconut husk the
raw material for coir industry, is derived from Coconut which is
grown in countries spread over the tropical belt of the world.
%hilippines, Indonesia, India, &ri 'anka, (hailand, %appua )ew
*uinea and +alaysia are the ma,or coconut producing countries of
the world contributing to about 8!" of the outputs in sian and
%aci$c Coconut Community -%CC.
(he Coir $bre, the $brous material forming part of the mass
surrounding the coconut is one among the industrial hard $bres
and possesses properties like toughness, strength, resistance to
dampness, rot resistance, durability and natural resistance.
(hough coconuts are processed to economic advantage in almost
all the coconut producing countries of the world, utili/ation of
coconut husk for production of coir has been con$ned to a large
e#tent to India and &ri 'anka. (hese two countries together
accounting to 0!" of annual world production of coconut
contribute to over 1!" of the world production of coir.
(he Industrial utilisation of coconut husk was very low in India in
the infant stages of the coir industry. (he production of coir was
concentrated only I Kerala while the raw material 2 coconut husk
was throw away material in other coconut producing states of
India. 3ith the implementation of various schemes of the Coir
4oard the Industrial use of coconut husk has picked up in the non
traditional area of India such as (amil )adu, Karnataka, ndhra
%radesh, 5rissa, 3est 4engal, ssam, ndaman )icobar Islands,
'akshadeep islands etc. (he concentration of coir industry in the
coastal belt of Kerala state was due to the abundance of raw
material, skilled labour and the availability of natural facilities of
backwaters and lagoons within easy reach or raw material. (here
are more than 6!!! coir industrial establishments and most of
them are small scale cottage household units engaged in the
processing and manufacture of coir and coir products.
(here are two distinct varieties of coir $bre vi/. white $bre and
brown $bre. 3hite $bre is e#tracted from retted husk and the
brown $bre is e#tracted by mechanical devices from green7dry
husk. (he white $bre is the most desired for the production of
value added products such as mats mattings and carpets whereas
the brown $bre is ansorbed for rubberi/ed Coir7brush sector.
INDIAN COIR INDUSTRY
Size of the
Industry
Total world coir fibre production is
250,000 tonnes. Today India,
mainly the coastal region of Kerala
State, produces 60 of the total
world supply of white coir fibre.
Geographical
distribution
Kerala, Tamil !adu, "ndhra
#radesh, Karnata$a, %aharashtra,
&oa, 'disha, "ssam, "ndaman (
!icobar, )a$shadweed,
#ondicherry
Percentage in
World Market
India, mainly the coastal region of
Kerala State, produces 60 of the
total world supply of white coir fibre.
Market
Capitalization
Kerala is the home of Indian coir
industry where white fibre,
accounting for 6* of coconut
production and o+er ,5 of coir
products
History
The history of -oir in India started with the association of Kerala state which dates bac$ to the
*.th -entury. /etween the 0estern &hats on the east and the "rabian Sea on the west, Kerala
is one of the most beautiful states of India. " tropical paradise of wa+ing coconut palms and
wide sandy beaches, this thin strip of coastal territory slopes down from the mountain ghats in a
cascade of lush green +egetation and +aried fauna. 'ne of the most commonly seen tropical
trees in Kerala is the -oconut tree. In fact, e+en the name Kerala 1Kerlam in %alayalam2 is
deri+ed from this tree 13Kera3 in %alayalam language means -oconut and 3"lam3 means )and,
thus Keralam 4 )and of -oconut2. 5+erything from Kerala6s culture to its dishes is e+ol+ed
around the -oconut tree.
Today Indian coir industry has come a long way from manufacturing simple ropes to
+arious high7end lifestyle products. India established its first coir factory in "lleppey and
one 8ames 9arrah, initiated the process of professionalism and modernisation in an
unorganised sector. '+er one hundred and forty summers ago, when 8ames 9arrah
decided to establish a coir factory in "lleppey, he might not ha+e +isualised the $ind of
re+olution he was launching in a strange land. The 5uropeans had entrenched
themsel+es in Indian subcontinent and political re+olutions of different hues were being
enacted in +arious parts of India. /ut the one that 9arrah launched by establishing
India6s first coir factory in *,5.760 in "lleppey, popularly $nown as the :enice of the
5ast, was one that has changed the face of Indian coastal belt.
In India coir ma$ing is largely a dissipated industry with households producing miniscule
;uantity of products. They hady established an appeal of fibre by retting and then
beating coconut for the interior hus$s. In India produced fibre and many as *,<02 of the
*,,=* coir units in yarn hardly bothered about the ad+antages Kerala where in "lleppey,
establishing the of professionally organising their traditional coastal town as the
unchallenged head;uarter of coir7ma$ing capabilities.
The golden te>tured Indian coir fibre, which "ndhra #radesh, 'disha and &oa produced
captured the 5uropean and world mar$ets. ?rom then on, there was the success of
Indian coir6s reign and it had no turning bac$. The big corporates soon established coir
factories in "lleppey, Kollam, Ko@hi$ode, Kochi and other parts of Kerala. Industrial
giants including :ol$art /rothers, 0illiam &oodacre, #ierce )eslie and "spinwall mo+ed
in to tap the potential offered by the golden fibre, and "lleppey was soon a household
name all o+er 5urope and India. /y *.6A the 3&olden ?ibre3 had captured the 5uropean
and the world mar$ets. Today the -oir &oe7Te>tiles or coir /hoo+astra has shot into the
lime light which are mainly due to its eco7frinedly characteristics. They are being usually
effecti+ely used for impro+ing soil baha+iours, pre+enting soil erosion, and in helping
consolidation of soil. -oir is a *00 organic and bio7degradable fibre which has great
water absorbency and has a definite edge o+er synthetic goe te>tiles, in the
en+ironmental aspect and issues. The greatest ad+antage of -oir is that it pro+ides an
ecological niche for rapid establishment of +egetation.
-oir being the geo7te>tiles come in a mind7boggling range of wo+en and non7wo+en
+arieties a+ailable for bio7engineering,including geo meshes,girds, geo7beds, anti7weed
blan$ets, needled felts, erosion control blan$ets, geo7rolls, geo7webs, and fascines. The
main reasons that helped the establishment of the coir spinning industry in Kerala are
the presence of brac$ish bac$waters and lagoons of the state. /rac$ish waters had to
be replenished by fresh water at fre;uent inter+als to wash away the water
contaminated in the process of retting of hus$s, and Kerala was naturally endowed with
this facility. This made an essential establishment of the the industry so firmly in India
and particularly in $erala, e+en though coconut production was significantly high in
se+eral other countries li$e Indonesia, #hilippines, Sri)an$a and Thailand. Indian coir
industry is $eeping pace with the change in technology and imbibing the latest
de+elopments in production techni;ues and designs.