The Hindu Business Line : 25 coir clusters taken up for further development

Revitalisation proposals
Subsidy for women who collect coconut husk for fibre spinning units
More investment in R&D
Revitalisation of coir spinning co-operatives, adoption of green fibre technology

MR MAHABIR PRASAD

Kochi , Sept. 16

The Union Government has adopted 25 clusters in the coir sector all over the country for regeneration under the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries, Mr Mahabir Prasad, Union Minister of SSI and ARI, has said.

The Government, he said, was fully aware of the problems being faced by traditional industries including coir as it touched the unorganised sectors of the society. It was with this objective, he said, that the Government had launched the scheme fund. Mr Mahabir was inaugurating a workshop titled `11th five year plan - schemes and programmes in coir sector', organised by the Coir Board here on Saturday.

The Government has also approved the Alappuzha Coir Cluster Development project under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme at a total outlay of Rs 56.8 crore with the Government's grant at Rs 42.6 crore.

Project activities

The project would undertake activities such as husk collection, fibre processing, productivity enhancement, capacity building, upgradation of technology, creation of infrastructure for common facility centre, export oriented production of value added products and product diversification.

The guidelines for Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme of the SSI had recently been modified to cover the coir industry, and under the scheme the coir industrial units could utilise the 12 per cent capital subsidy for technology upgradation, he said.

New markets

Considering the decline in demand for some traditional coir products from the traditional export markets, the Minister stressed the need to explore new markets and develop new products of consumer choice.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr T.M. Thomas Issac, Kerala Finance Minister, called for a reorientation of market promotion strategy with more focus on different brands of handloom mats to countries other than Europe. The coir industry, he said, was on the threshold of development with buoyant market conditions worldwide.

The Coir Board Chairman, Mr A.C. Jose, said that the coir industry was at present on the verge of a major change and was badly in need of strategies and policies, which would help the overall development of the industry. The traditional industry including coir was now facing a threat due to lack of organising capacity, infrastructure facilities and access to market leading to affect the livelihood of highly skilled artisans trained over centuries of tradition, he said.