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Coir Kerala 2017 Turns Coastal City of Alappuzha into Art Gallery

The annual fair is part of the state’s efforts to rejuvenate the ailing coir industry by exploring and expanding the international and domestic markets for coir products

An international fair in Kerala to promote and rejuvenate the coir industry is gaining popular attention with its creative campaigning methods.

Coir Kerala 2017 will be held in the coastal city of Alappuzha from October 5 to 9, and the run-up to it has filled the city walls with paintings. The art project is being widely appreciated by residents as well as tourists.

The coir industry – a largely traditional and labour-intensive industry – has long been in distress.

The Coir Kerala fair is part of the state’s efforts to rejuvenate the industry by exploring and expanding the international and domestic markets for coir products from Kerala, and to encourage use of the latest technology in the coir production sector.

And as part of the campaign for the fair, artists have turned many walls in the city into works of art.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus stand at Alappuzha has nearly been transformed into an art gallery.

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The fair’s organising committee has decided that the event shall follow the Green Protocol – to ensure that the fair is as environment-friendly as possible.

Flex boards have been completely avoided in the campaign for the event. While the usual alternatives for flex boards are made of cloth, the artists of Alappuzha have developed another alternative – campaign boards made of coir matting.

These are relatively more expensive compared to cloth, but can be re-used. After use, the coir matting can be taken apart and used as geotextiles.

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Coir is among the largest industries in the coastal villages of Kerala. According to studies, coir and coir-products generated about Rs. 1,630 crore worth of foreign exchange in 2013-14.

While there are at least 27 large, mechanised coir companies, there are also more than 500 cooperative societies that are part of the coir industry. About four lakh people work in the coir industry of the state, as per the Coir Board.

Alappuzha district is the nerve centre of Kerala’s coir industry, and the coastal city of Alappuzha is the permanent venue for the annual Coir Kerala Fair.

Coir Kerala 2017 is the seventh edition of the annual fair organised by the Government of Kerala’s Department of Coir Development.

Spread over five days, the event will consist of an exhibition, Buyer-Seller Meet, cultural programmes as well as national and international seminars.

The fair foregrounds the state’s strategy to move the industry towards modernisation and diversification, while protecting the traditional coir sector.

According to Dr. T.M. Thomas Isaac, the Finance Minister of Kerala who also has the charge of the Department of Coir, this year’s Coir Kerala has two new facets to it.

One is the attempt to firmly link coir industry with the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme and with the schemes to conserve soil and water.

A Memorandum of Understanding for using Rs. 100 crore worth of coir geotextiles in soil and water conservation programmes is expected to be signed during the Coir Kerala fair.

The second facet is the restructuring of the industry with a focus on modernisation of the coir cooperatives, which will be announced on October 9.

The event of the announcement, to be attended by 1,000 people associated with the coir cooperative sector, will be the culmination of plans and preparations that have been going on for several months now.

A concrete plan to create a domestic market for coir products is also expected to take shape at the fair.

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