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| Export of coir geo-textiles to IECA nations to go up Mon, 07 Mar 2011 |
| KOCHI: India's coir geo-textiles exports to the 40 International Erosion Control Association (IECA) member countries are slated to pick up momentum, going by the encouraging enquiries the Coir Board had received at the four-day annual IECA conference and exposition held at Florida in the U.S. recently, a press release from the board says. The annual conference of 3,000 members drawn from the 40 countries, besides 17 professional bodies of environmentalists, contractors, importers, architects, decision-makers and corporates, was an opportunity to showcase the products, technologies and innovations in the field of erosion control and soil-stabilisation measures before the global community. The Coir Board is a corporate member of the IECA. Application of coir geo-textiles accounts for hardly two per cent of the global requirements in soil-erosion-control measures in which synthetic alternatives continue to occupy a dominant place. This situation explained the vast potential for market penetration especially among the IECA member nations, Coir Board Chairman V.S. Vijayaraghavan says in the release. Even an increase of two to three per cent in the share of coir in the global geo-textiles market in the coming years can lead to a quantum jump in the export of the Indian coir geo-textiles. In the context of the constantly changing requirements of the erosion-control industry and products, the board is equipping itself to meet the growing global requirements by developing new coir products. Export Indian coir geo-textile products are currently being exported to 25 of the 40 IECA member countries. The U.S. accounted for 41 per cent in terms of quantity and 31 per cent in value terms of the 3,754 tonnes of coir geo-textiles valued at Rs.20.23 crore exported from India during 2009-10, as against 2,512 tonnes valued at Rs.11.4 crore during 2005-06. Other major importers of coir geo-textiles are Japan, France, Australia, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Italy, Russia and Switzerland. Sri Lanka is the major competitor to India in the coir geo-textile export sector. Mr. Vijayaraghavan says the Indian government has taken up as a pilot project construction of 400 km of rural roads in various States, as part of the National Rural Road Construction Projects, using the eco-friendly coir geo-textile for ‘inner-lay' that saves a lot of road construction materials. It is also being used in a large stretch of ravines in central India for soil-erosion control that had helped conversion of such huge land for growing vegetation, including for agriculture and horticulture purposes. The Indian coir sector has contributed to the empowerment of rural women in large numbers as they account for nearly 80 per cent of the over 6,00,000 employments generated by the coir sector. The board presented a technical paper titled “Prospects and problems of use of coir geo-textiles for soil conservation work in forest area” at the IECA conference. It was authored jointly by Mr Vijayaraghavan and U.S. Sarma, Director, Central Coir Research Institute, Kalavoor, Alappuzha |
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