Measures on cards to spur coir exports

New Delhi: The government has begun work to amend the 72-year-old Coir Industry Act that will facilitate the creation of value-added products such as jute blended or rubber blended coir and reduce bureaucracy in its functioning as it aims to drive up coir and coir product exports by about 50% to ₹5,000 crore by 2027.The exports were to the tune of ₹3,396 crore in FY24, ₹3,992 crore in FY23 and ₹4,340 crore in FY22.

The proposed amendments will align the extant law with today’s market reality and help businesses expand their product ranges and modernise units through the adoption of new technology.

“For increasing exports, we need policies that can facilitate exports from the country,” said an official who didn’t want to be named.

Officials said that the Act will also be amended to trim the 40-member coir board by around 50%, enabling faster decision-making.

“The coir board right now has 40 members, which makes it difficult to conduct meetings as getting the required quorum for meetings is a challenge,” added the official.The amendments will also enable the setting up of export facilitation centres, helping coir producers identify export markets and market their products accordingly.Changes at the policy level are also likely to make coir products more marketable by establishing a supply chain that can deliver products in sync with the tastes and preferences of consumers.

“We want to create value-added products from coir and for this to happen, we need to blend coir with jute and rubber. These blended products will expand the coir product range and keep up with current market trends. Right now, the Act only focuses on coir making R&D and blending of coir products is difficult,” said the official.

The amendments will also facilitate the partnership between the coir sector and R&D institutions, and allow easier adoption of new technology.

The government is also looking to consolidate 26 existing coir showrooms across India, shutting showrooms that have been making losses for a long time.

India produced 1.89 million tonnes (mt) of coir and coir products in FY24, a slight increase from 1.87 mt in FY23.