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Vinson Kurian

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, June 27

THE coir industry, centred around the Alappuzha district, has proposed that a coir park be set up in Cherthala under the Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development for Exports and Allied Activities (ASIDE) scheme so that shipments of coir products from the State receive a timely boost.

The highly fragmented coir industry, employing some five lakh people and boasting practically nil import content in finished products, would have to organise itself and drastically improve quality levels to be able to compete in the competitive international markets, according to representatives of the industry who aired their views during an interface with the State Industries Department arranged by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra), the nodal agency for the ASIDE scheme in the State.

This is possible only if infrastructure requirements in terms of common facilities, especially of effluent treatment, are arranged.

An export-based coir park based in Cherthala can also prove beneficial to the fledgling jute products industry in the vicinity.

Jute-based products accounted for Rs 70 crore worth of exports last year. Jute yarn is brought in bulk quantities from West Bengal and the dyeing and bleaching done here.

Availability of land should not pose a problem since excess land in the possession of two public sector units in Cherthala, Autokast Ltd and Steel Industrials Kerala (SILK), could be effectively used to set up the park, it was suggested.

Kinfra has already set up a coir park on part of this land, where a number of units have been operating successfully.

One of the major problems the sector has to contend with is the water and environment pollution associated with the retting of coir.

A Coir Board representative recalled how the State Pollution Control Board authorities had raised objections to an earlier Kinfra proposal for setting up infrastructure on the basis of perceived threats of groundwater pollution.

The scattered nature of the units has ruled out the setting up of a common effluent treatment facility; precisely for this reason, a Tirupur model of effluent treatment may not work here.

Another suggestion was that tanker lorries could be deployed to collect effluents from thousands of cottage units and reach them to a common facility for treatment.

Precarious state of industry: The coir industry in the State is precariously perched with the ground moving away from under its feet due to a combination of factors, representatives of the trade told the State Government.

A situation has come about where the industry is being forced to look to lorry loads of brown fibre from Tamil Nadu - variously estimated to come in at the rate of 200 on a daily basis - for sustenance.

The industry would have to close down if these consignments, sourced mostly from Pollachi, stop.

The rot in the system can be limited to some extent by introducing mechanisation, but whatever initiatives made in this direction have provided too little and too late, it was stated.

The plight was attributable to the progressive reduction in the area where retting is undertaken, lack of effective mechanism for fast and effective disposal of coir pith and the reluctance of the new generation to willingly enter the trade.

Production of each kg of coir releases at least two kg of coir pith for disposal. The enhanced salt content in the pith produced from these areas rules out prospects for further treatment into by-products.

This has led some industrial units to migrate to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Coir Board has been busy crafting new initiatives to stem the tide as evidenced in the introduction of mobile defibering units, but it would have to come with more such to instill confidence, the entrepreneurs said.

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