COIR INDUSTRY

Ambalapuzha, Cherthala and Karthikappally Taluks of Alappuzha District are well known for the production of Coir and Coir products. Coir Industry is one of the major traditional industry of Alappuzha. Above 5 Lakhs people are engaged any one of the various processing activities of coconut fibre, Yarn producing or producing or production of coir products. It is assessed that nearly 60% of the Coir products exported from India are produced from Alappuzha District. The availability of raw materials, infrastructural facilities, availability of skilled workers, marketing facilities etc. boost the progress of this industry in this area.

Government are also extending all possible assistance to this sector to develop this industry. Coir Co-operative societies are also organised and registered in this sector from years back to cover more workers and assist them in the better way. Government are extending more assistance in the Co- operative sector than in the private sector. A number of exporters have also born up aimed at the exporting of coir products and are existing in a well established manner.

One of the draw backs in the industry is the development of intermediary agents between the workers and exporters and a majority of benefits eligible to the workers are diverted to these agents. No successful measures could be drawn up to exempt these agents. from the field. There was no opportunities for the workers to sell their products to exporters and to earn the actual price for their products. The workers were being exploited by these agents for years.

In Order to overcome from the exploitation, workers have decided to come under the co- operative field and to organise a Coir Co-operative Society mainly aimed to procure the raw materials at reasonable rate, distribute among the workers with a small margin, collect the products from the members and sell to exporters at the declared price so that the workers get the maximum price for their products

With the above aim small scale coir mats producers of Mararikulam South Grama panchayath of Alappuzha District have organised to form a coir producers Co- operative society and registered a society under the name and style "SARVODAYAPURAM COTR MATS PRODUCERS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD.NO.A-993, Kattoor p.o Sarvodayapuram, Alappuzha. The Society was registered on 1997