All stakeholders in the coir industry, including the Government, exporters and coir societies, should come together to strengthen the functioning of coir societies and small-scale coir manufacturing units, said Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation KC Venugopal.

Inaugurating a national seminar on ‘Possibilities for Coir Co-operative Sector’ at Coir Kerala 2014, the Minister said the coir societies play a major role in ensuring jobs to lakhs of coir workers.

“We need to probe the reason why benefits are not reaching coir workers. PSUs such as Coirfed and Coir Corporation should devise measures to help coir societies, the lifeline of the traditional coir industry,” he said.

Coirfed should consider allocating mobile fibre extraction machines to the coir societies and help them explore innovations in coir products. He also suggested increasing the work days of coir workers in a month.

KM Raju, Chief Administrator, Coirfed, said low wages, shortage of experts, slow decision-making and lack of accountability were the problems faced by coir cooperative societies that needed to be immediately addressed.

When compared to the private sector, coir cooperatives offer paltry salaries that are insufficient to attract experts who can advise on good marketing strategies and interventions.

Decision-making is also a relatively slow process in the cooperative sector, which becomes a major setback when quick and immediate action is called for. Limited freedoms, especially when it comes to utilising funds, were also an obstacle for coir societies, he said.

A thorough professional study on the sector should be conducted, possibly by an IIT or NIT, and its recommendations implemented. Research in coir should take the ‘Lab to Land’ approach, yielding practical results and applications, he said.  

According to Sajith Gopinath, National Institute of Design (NID), design should be understood as an approach by the industry. It is an important element of marketing, as was product awareness.

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