The Coir Board Chairman, Mr V. S. Vijayaraghavan, has assured Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Mr Virbhadra Singh, that the coir industry's projected export target of Rs 800 crore would be achieved this fiscal, as exports have totalled 200,000 metric tonnes worth Rs 521 crore during April-December 2010.

This was conveyed to Mr Singh when Mr Vijayaraghavan called on him at his Udyog Bhavan office in New Delhi after assuming office following the recent union Cbinet reshuffle.

Mr Singh, in turn, expressed keen interest to study in depth the present state of affairs of the traditional coir industry coming under his Ministry, and offered all possible help from his side for the development of the labour intensive industry. Mr Vijayaraghavan also extended an invitation to Mr Singh to inaugurate the Common Facility Centre (CFC) of the Vaikom Coir cluster in Kottayam district, and sought a date convenient for Mr Singh to conduct the function this month itself in view of the Kerala Assembly elections due in April-May.

In all, 26 clusters have been identified in the coir sector for implementation under its Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), with a view to making the traditional industries more competitive and market driven.

The coir clusters enjoyed a Governmental grant of Rs 76.94 lakh each for the implementation of the scheme aimed at capacity building, market promotion efforts, product development and design intervention.

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