Commodity Online
KOCHI: India’s relations with China in coir sector got a boost following a Chinese delegation’s visit to the Coir Board’s office in Kochi recently.
India is targeting China to boost its coir exports as China has emerged as a big importer from India following the Dragon nations increased demand for the fibre for the coming Olympics.
India has been providing coir to China for the Olympic Games needs for the past few years.
The delegation from China, headed by Flora Tian, china general representative, India-China Economic and Cultural Council, visited the Coir Board and held discussions with the senior officials.
She was accompanied by Joan Huang, commercial representative, India-China Economic and Cultural Council. They have also visited the coir producing centres at Alappuzha and Trikunnapuzha.
The delegation attended a meeting at Coir Board office, Kochi, where various matters connected with the development of the coir industry in China were discussed at length.
A presentation depicting various facets of the coir industry was made before the delegation.
The team members evinced keen interest for developing the coir industry in their country. They appealed to the Union government and the Coir Board to extend maximum possible technical support for the development of coir industry in China.
Meanwhile, despite some sops from the commerce ministry, coir exports have not fully recovered from appreciation of the rupee against the dollar. While exports have increased in terms of quantity, value has slumped.
Coir exports touched 1,49,232 tonne valued at Rs 486.86 crore for the 10-month period ended January 2008. For the same period in the previous year, exports came to 1,31,109 tonne, valued at Rs 490.17 crore.
While the quantity has grown 13.82%, value has fallen marginally by 0.68%. Coir mats, the principal item in the coir export basket, has shown 2% rise in quantity while the value has dropped 2%. Coir mats export stood at 62,125 tonne, valued at Rs 368.13 crore.
Coir pith, geotextiles and fibre have shown improvement in both quantity and value.
