Steps will be taken to set up 250 coir factories in the district by next year, Minister for Finance and Coir T.M. Thomas Isaac has said.
He was inaugurating a conference organised in connection with the coir industry here on Monday.
“Starting new factories will help to achieve self-sufficiency in the coir sector. Already, companies such as Reliance and IKEA have signed agreements with us for procuring coir products,” Dr. Isaac said.
₹400 cr. for sector
The Minister said ₹400 crore would be spent for the coir sector this year. “Our aim is to produce 20,000 tonnes of coir in the current fiscal. We have so far produced 16,000 tonnes. Apart from providing automatic spinning machines, we will set up four automatic ratt machine units in the district,” he said.
Dr. Isaac said the production of coir geotextiles would touch 25,000 tonnes next year. “In a bid to find a market for geotextiles, a meeting of Coir Ministers of various States will be convened in April. Further talks will be held with the Indian defence sector, Indian Railways, and the mining sector,” the Minister said. He said the Alappuzha Coir Museum would be opened partially by April 2020. He distributed 620 automatic looms to 61 societies, 3,000 electronic ratts and 91 willowing machines at the function. District panchayat president G. Venugopal presided. A.M. Ariff, MP, Kerala State Coir Corporation chairman T.K. Devakumar and others spoke.