ALAPPUZHA: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said that the Government's recent initiatives in the coir sector have brightened the prospects of industry. Inaugurating the distress purchase scheme of the State Government in the coir sector at a function in Alappuzha on Monday, Mr. Isaac said the interest of customers in coir products had revived recently and the export of coir products had shown an increase.

At the same time, new challenges were emerging and the industry needed to be reconstituted to face up to those challenges, said the Finance Minister.

Mr. Isaac said the coir sector in the State, which faced little challenge from the other States or countries in the past had now began to feel the heat of competition.

The technological changes that happened to the industry, especially the making of fibre from raw husk and the introduction of mechanised spinning wheel (ratt) had made it possible for coconut producing areas to make coir yarn and other products, he said.

The Minister said the Government had earmarked Rs.15 crores in the budget for starting coconut fibre production mills in non-traditional areas in the State, which include Malabar and hilly districts.

He said the aim was to divert at least 50 per cent of the coconut husk produced in the State for fibre production. He said the introduction of motorised ratts in the coir yarn spinning sector needed to be undertaken.

The spinning sector needed to be reconstituted in the cooperative sector, Mr. Isaac said. He said the Government would provide Rs.20 crores for that.

The cooperative societies should also take the initiative to diversify their products and modernise production centres, he added.

Stressing the need for ending depot system (middlemen) in the sector, the Minister said the distress purchase of coir products being undertaken by the

Kerala State Coir Corporation would make it possible for the corporation to provide any quantity of products to export houses even at short notice. Thus the export houses would not feel any shortage of coir products and could do away with middlemen, he said.

On the issue of flexibility in purchase raised by export houses, Mr. Isaac said exporters could also buy products from cooperative societies of workers or small scale manufacturers, common facility centres of panchayats and public sector coir product manufacturing centres.

Coir Minister G. Sudhakaran, who distributed the first order of the Government to the Kerala Coir Matts and Mattings Cooperative Society president P.K. Vijayan, said the Government was evolving a development model in coir sector that encompassed all sections in the coir sector including workers, small scale manufacturers and exporters.

The Government had earmarked Rs.50.5 crores for the sector in the budget and that was unprecedented, he said.

Anathalavattom Anandan, MLA, presided over the function.

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