The Hindu : Front Page : Export mats help weavers come out of red

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 05, 2006

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Export mats help weavers come out of red

Karthik Madhavan

BHAVANI: There is a third dimension to weaving export mats in this carpet town. Along with warp and weft, profit too gets woven. And this has profited many loss-making cooperative societies.

The societies that weave export variety do according to exporters' specifications. The exporters also supply raw materials and fix the delivery date.

These export mats, unlike the domestic ones, are corrugated, lengthy strips with either one or two colours in them. The weavers say consumers abroad use it as dining table and bedside mats and bathroom approaches.

In weaving these mats, the societies get 21 per cent profit against the 15 per cent in domestic mats. The domestic varieties are sent to either north India or sold through Co-optex.

Besides the increased profit, another advantage is export mats are easy to weave, as the width is considerably narrow. "The export varieties are usually 13 inches wider, whereas the domestic mats have a minimum width of 34 inches. This enables even women to weave," says an officer of the Elango Weavers' Cooperative Society. Since it is easy to weave, the weavers produce more and earn more. A rough calculation suggests that a weaver weaving export variety gets Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 more a day.

The story of weavers and societies weaving export mats using knitwear waste is no different. Instead of yarn in weft, strips of knitwear waste, particularly those from vests, is used. This is cheaper compared to yarn mats, though. Both these export mat varieties and the six per cent increased profit margin that go with it have reflected in the bottom line of the societies.

Elango Weavers' Cooperative Society that struggled with a loss of Rs. 23.17 lakh a decade ago has reduced it to Rs. 4.5 lakh.

"This is largely owing to the income from export mats," says an officer of the society.

Sri Venkateswara Cooperative Society, too, has a similar story to tell."Three years ago when we began weaving export variety we suffered a deficit of Rs. 8 lakh. In the 2005-06 financial year we have a profit of Rs. 8 lakh and will soon declare a bonus of 10 per cent," says an officer of the society.

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