Coir Council launches research and training project

The Coir Council International (CCI) launched the coir research, development and training project "Pilot project for efficient coir processing and quality control" at the Trans Asia Hotel last week.

The CCI, a party to the project, worked to ensure that the local coir industry achieves global competitiveness, global recognition and indeed global preference. Sri Lanka was one of the first coir producing nations in the world. The local coir industry is presently faced with a lack of productivity, a lack of innovativeness and a lack of efficiency impacting negatively not only on the industry and national economy but also the lives of those employed in the industry.

The negative impact is most significant in the lives of the workers at the lower rungs of the industry, those who extract the soaked husks from the pits, the fibre extractors. The sole reason contributing to this situation is that Sri Lanka has not been able to progress out of the archaic mechanisms being practised. The coir industry in Sri Lanka is also driven by the industry. The CCI, a body of stakeholders is committed to propelling the local coir industry to global preference, understood that the potential of the local coir industry remained untapped.

The CCI also understood that because the potential was untapped, the local coir industry could not compete effectively in the global market in the face of competition from other coir producing nations.

The CCI had a firm conviction and an unwavering belief that the local coir industry could only grow and strengthen only if there was research, development and training to facilitate for better quality fibre, greater applications, improved technology, enhanced productivity and efficiency, better business practices and skilled and motivated workforce.

This belief resulted in the CCI lobbying at prestigious global forums to seek funding support to establish a coir research, development and training project.

The CCI finally sought the approval of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) - an international donor agency. Rigid requirements had to be in place prior to approval by the CFC.

The CCI's mandate is that relevant entities too play a role in this matter of national interest and hence the parties to the project includes the Coconut Development Authority, the Coconut Research Institute, the Coir Council International and the Common Fund for Commodities.

The mechanisms adopted by the CFC is that the project should be executed by a Project Executing Agency (PEA) and the Industrial Technology Institute, being Sri Lanka's technology institute has been appointed as the PEA for this project.