Sri Lanka’s coir product industry totters back to normalcy
View(s):Sri Lanka’s coir and coir product export industry is gradually weathering the COVID-19 storm as most of the fibre mills and processing factories resume production within weeks of the coronavirus outbreak.
A limited number of workers have been called for work and they are currently working at half the production capacity which will be gradually increased with the picking up of coir product imports from overseas, the coconut byproduct exporters said.
But the operations are yet to become full-fledged as the cancellation of export orders by COVID-19 affected countries have disrupted the local coir substrate production process.
Coconut husk-related products with an average export earning of over US$200 million per year constitutes 33 per cent of the total export of coconut products from the country.
Given Sri Lanka’s significant coconut crop which leads to an abundance of coconut husks, the country has grown to become a leader in the coconut substrate export industry although it has been disrupted at present.
However, innovation and maintaining consistently high quality value added products are important ingredients in leveraging the existing market opportunity in the aftermath of COVID-19, Growrite Substrates Ltd. Managing Director Dinesh Fernando told the Business Times.
“We are aware of the need to meet this socio-economic requirement and are committed to developing our long-term business growth and success by being a responsible member of all the communities we operate in,” he said.
“In an ever-changing business landscape, we acknowledge there are still many challenges to understand and achieve and expectations from employees, governments and the wider society are high amidst the COVID-19 impact on the coconut substrates industry,” he added.
The virus outbreak in North America and Europe along with the nationwide lockdown has brought the entire coir sector, already in crisis, to its knees with lower exports between March end and the start of this month.
Sri Lanka’s coco peat exports have to be increased investing heavily in product innovation to manufacture value-added products, catching up the lost time and man-hours due to the COVID-19 lockdown, coconut byproduct exporters suggested.
Sri Lanka’s abundance of coconut husks should be fully made used to become a leader in the coconut substrate export industry, a leading exporter said.
Some 70 per cent of coconut production is consumed domestically and around 800 million nuts are available for the export market.
Sri Lanka earns $0.6 billion from the exports of desiccated coconut and coconut by products and it has the potential of becoming $1 billion industry via value added exports, exporters emphasised.
Coconut husk has become a rich resource for a variety of products as well as soil-less gardening.
The coconut fibre is a raw material for products such as ropes, coir mats, coir mesh, bio-filter and even yarn.
Coconut exporters said that the country has a high potential in the production of the cash crop if cultivators are prepared to grow more coconut trees. (BS)