Beating all previous records, India exported Rs. 11.16 billion worth of coir and coir products in 2012-13, which is a 6 percent or Rs. 640 million more than previous fiscal’s exports of Rs. 10.52 billion, Coir Board Chairman G Balachandran has said.
According to a Board press release, India’s coir exports grew by five percent in volume from 410,854 tons in 2011-12 to 429,500 tons in 2012-13. Exports of coir fibre, coir matting, coir pith, tufted mat and coir geotextiles grew between 2 to 21 percent year-on-year, while that of coir yarn, coir rope, curled coir, handloom mats, rubberised coir, powerloom mats, carpets and coir rugs dipped by 3 to 87 percent year-on-year. While handloom items like coir geotextiles, mats and mattings jointly contributed around 24 percent of the total exports, non-traditional products accounted for about 76 percent of the same, the release said.
Accounting for 16.6 percent of total export volumes and 57 percent of total valuations, Kerala contributed around 71.284 tons worth Rs. 6.84 billion to India’s total coir exports. Tamil Nadu contributed 353,533.78 tons worth Rs. 4.75 billion, representing 82.3 percent of total export volume and 41.7 percent of value. The state mainly exported coir fibre, coir pith and coir other sorts, the statement said.
Contribution from other states totalled 4,682.66 tons worth Rs. 142.7 million, which was 1.1 percent of total export volume and 1.28 percent of value, it added. Around 13 percent of the total shipment headed to 112 countries, were towards the US, which contributed around 22.8 percent of total export earnings. China turned out to be the biggest importer of coir fibre from India. During the year, China accounted for around 33.9 percent of total volume and 19.4 percent of total value. The Coir Board Chairman said in spite of global financial slump, especially in the Europe, coir exports maintained a positive trend.
