LONDON: Coir exports grew by 17 per cent in value terms last fiscal compared to the previous year and the Coir Board plans to double exports in the next three years, said its chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan.
The exports last financial year were worth Rs.1,901 crore and these were mainly to the U.S. and West Asian countries. Recently, Indian coir products entered the Japanese market. The board is hopeful of getting the ‘Eco Mark’ label for its products from the Ministry of Environment and Forests in a couple of months. The label will give a boost to exports. The board has also appealed to the Commerce Ministry to increase the export incentive for coir products, Mr. Radhakrishnan told presspersons here on Tuesday.
On the domestic market, he said the board was in the process of collecting data about domestic sales. With steps such as renovation of existing retail outlets, it is hopeful of Rs.1,000-crore sales by the end of March 2017. The board has 30 outlets across the country and will renovate all the outlets. It will sign agreements with top exporters so that they sell their products through the outlets in the domestic market. “We also want to help the manufacturers get into e-commerce,” he said.
