A coir umbrella on display at the expo. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, March 25: The business prospects of coir, the golden fibre, is finally looking up in Assam, with the Coir Board planning to push up turnover in the state to Rs 50 crore by the end of the Twelfth Plan period.

Coir Board director, marketing, M. Kumaraswamy Pillai told The Telegraph, “The business is now worth a meagre Rs 5-10 crore, and we plan to have a turnover of Rs 50 crore in Assam by the end of the Twelfth Plan period.”

Coir is a versatile natural fibre extracted from coconut husk. It is often referred to as the golden fibre because it generally appears golden once it is cleaned after being removed from the husk.

Pillai said the board was now making more efforts to explore the market for coir and its products in the region and to introduce high value coir products here. “There is tremendous scope, and we are determined to make the best use of it,” he said.

As a step in that direction, the board has organised the Northeast Coir Expo at the Asian Palace complex on GS Road here to develop the domestic market for coir products. A wide array of coir products along with the technology used for producing these items is on display at the expo. Products on display include coir jackets and umbrellas.

Traditional uses for the resilient and durable fibre include ropes and twines, brooms and brushes, doormats, rugs, mattresses and other upholstery, often in the form of rubberised coir pads. But technology and applications have undergone rapid changes and now, geo-textile, ply boards, pith organic manure, garden articles and even ornaments can be produced using coir.

The board is also demonstrating the use of coir ply as a wood substitute in the expo.

Though not more than 50 per cent of coconut husk is utilised in the country’s coir industry, the remaining being used as fuel in rural areas, in the Northeast the situation is much worse as the usage is around 20 per cent. “It is generally used for agricultural purposes in the region,” an official said.

Assam produces a total of 147 million coconuts every year.

Pillai said as 80 tonnes of fibre could be extracted from one million coconuts, 147 million could be used to produce 11,760 metric tonnes of fibre.

Coir Board chairman G. Balachandran said the board had decided to produce Janata coir mattresses with pillows for Rs 1,000.

In 2010-11, the board had allocated Rs 140 lakh to the Northeast, which was increased to Rs 220 lakh in 2011-12. A total of Rs 118.19 lakh has already been released and 187 units are being assisted under the Rejuvenation, Modernisation and Technology Upgradation Scheme to produce good quality coir products.

During the Twelfth Plan period, the board has proposed to adopt two coir clusters in Kaliabor in Assam’s Nagaon district and Teliamura in West Tripura. There are currently two coir clusters — Manas cluster in Assam and Indranagar cluster in Tripura.

The clusters have been sanctioned under Scheme for Regeneration of Traditional Industries to aid development of the coir industry in the region.

The board has also supplied 13,185 square metres of coir matting to schools as part of its drive to popularise the use of coir products in the Northeast.

Currently, the global annual production of coir fibre is about 3,50,000 metric tonnes. Yet, even in the world’s top two producers, India and Sri Lanka, together accounting for about 90 per cent of the global coir production, this renewable resource is under utilised. Local coir mills process only a fraction of the available husk.

India alone accounts for more than two-thirds of the world production of coir and coir products, with Kerala being the biggest producer, particularly white fibre, accounting for 61 per cent of the coconut production and over 85 per cent of Indian coir products.

India exports coir and coir products to 113 countries in the world, with exports reaching Rs 807.07 crore during the 2010-11 fiscal. The domestic market for coir products is worth Rs 2,000 crore.