Coconut fibre finished products Coir Twine Coir Yarn Tawashi Brushes Coir Broom Coir Fibre Pith Rubberised Coir Rubberised Coir Pads Coir Mats Coir Matting Coir-Geo Textiles Brush Mats Coir Basket Liners Coir Fibre Logs Coco Poles Moulded Coir Pots and Flower Pots Weed Killer Mats Coconut Fibre Products Mattress Fibres Bristle Fibres Twisted Fibre

Overview of the Sri Lankan Coir Industry

Currently, the global annual production of coir fiber is about 350,000 metric tons (MT). The world's top two producers, India and Sri Lanka, dominate over 90% of the market.

Traditional uses for the resilient and durable coir fibre include rope, twine, brooms, brushes, doormats, rugs, mattresses and other upholstery, often in the form of rubberized coir pads.

The 1980s and 90s, with the onset of synthetic foam and fibre global exports of coir fibre fell by almost half, as western consumers gravitated to the use the former. However 2001 turned a new page for the future of the coir industry. Rising Chinese demand for coir, an expanding market for coir-based erosion control products and the spread of coir pith as a peat moss substitute in horticulture gave global production and prices a jump start. Historically, Sri Lanka has been the world's largest exporter of various fibre grades. Global trade volume for Coir fibre, value added products such as yarn, mats, rugs and coir pith now stands at about $140 million per year with Sri Lanka accounting for as much as $60 million of that amount.

In Sri Lanka, coir related exports account for 6% of agricultural exports, over 1% of all exports and 0.35% of GDP. Coir milling and value addition, mostly spinning and weaving, are important regional employers, particularly in rural Southern India and coastal Sri Lanka. They create employment opportunities for over 500,000 people, many of them women working part-time. However, working conditions and productivity are generally poor. The challenge for the industry is to create new sustainable markets for this versatile renewable resource with a view to providing its employees greater scope of development and income

The total world import of coir & coir based products in 2006 recorded at EUR 2 million to the Netherlands. Sri Lankan exports of rubber and rubber based products was EUR 1 Million.

• Coir as a renewable resource is heavily underutilized; local coir mills process only a fraction of the available husks, which accrue more or less year round as waste during coconut processing. Joint partners to research and develop more productive and efficient methods of production would be welcome.
  
  
• Input and direction in improving product consistency and developing novel applications
  
  
• In horticulture, coir is recommended as a substitute for peat because it is free of bacteria and fungal spores and is produced without the environmental damage caused by peat mining. The competitive pricing and efficient turn a round time would be of interest to Dutch Horticulture companies.
  
  
• Most products come under the GSP Plus (incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance) tax scheme and therefore the import tariff is 0% till 31st December 2008