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.