The State Minister for Health and Coir, Mr Adoor Prakash, has said that the State Government proposes to work in tandem with the Coir Board for the speedy development of vast domestic market for the eco-friendly coir and coir products and achieve a total sale worth Rs 3,000 crore by the end of the 12th Plan period.

The Minister pointed out that there was an urgent need to launch massive campaigns to achieve the target in association with the Union Ministry of MSME and Coir Board in view of the prevailing congenial atmosphere in the coir industry in terms of availability of quality products in diverse ranges.

He was speaking at a function organised by the Coir Board at Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, after releasing a brochure brought out by the Board in connection with its participation at the special exhibition organised by the MSME Ministry to coincide with the Kullu-Dasara festival.

The Minister urged the participants at the fair to exhibit their products in the forthcoming Coir Kerala 2011 to give greater focuses on the domestic market development. The earlier edition held in 2010 focussed on export market development, he added.

Presiding over the function, the Coir Board Chairman, Mr V.S. Vijayaraghavan, said that this was the first time the Board was organising such a mega event in this part of the country in association with the Kerala Government and other institutions such as Khadi and Village Industries Commission keeping an eye on developing the domestic market for coir.

The function was also attended by Dr Naresh Pal, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, KVIC, and Mr Saji Kumar, President, COIRFED.

The Coir Board has put up 20 stalls in the Kullu-Dasara exhibition, shared by the Central Coir Research Institute, Kalavoor, Central Institute of Coir Technology, Bangalore, Hindustan Coir, the Small Scale Coir Manufacturers' Co-op. Societies, Kerala State Coir Corporation, Coirfed, the Gubbi coir cluster, Karnataka, and coir pith horticulture product manufacturers from Tamil Nadu.

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