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Coir Board Chairman CP Radhakrishnan is quite positive about coir plywood replacing every wood in the near future.
Highlighting the Board’s efforts at making this possible, he said that the Board first developed coir plywood products with E1 carbon emission.
E0 certification
“This is allowed by the countries in the European Union. But for the US market, the carbon emission standards have to be E0. We have managed to develop products with E0 carbon emission and have sent samples of the same to the US. We are now awaiting their nod. Once cleared, commercial production of coir plywood conforming to the US market standard will commence,” Radhakrishnan told BusinessLine.
Research centre
The Board has in the meantime invested ₹18 crore towards establishment of a research centre in Bengaluru, to aid manufacture of coir plywood using coir fibre. To a query on commercial production of products conforming to US standard, he said “out of the nine clusters in Tamil Nadu, three clusters – such as the one in Dindigul, Salem and Erode are ready for manufacture of coir wood products, apart from one in Karnataka. These clusters will be able to cater to the demand.”
New coir cluster
The coir cluster in Pollachi is to be inaugurated by end-March. This cluster will focus on Geo Textile products made from coir, he said and added that the Board is now looking for machinery manufacturers. “A manufacturer in the UK has agreed to make machinery for the coir industry, after an extensive study. We have joined hands with textile machinery manufacturing major Lakshmi Machine Works and MGR Deemed University for development of machines for the coir industry.”
Such initiatives would help us achieve our growth target of ₹20000 crore in the next two decades, he said, inviting start-ups and industrialists to tap the potential
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