Pollachi coir industry reels under manpower crunch

The coir industry at Pollachi is reeling under severe crisis due to an acute shortage of labour, along with the slothful attitude towards technological upgradation.

"Though the overall scenario in the coir industry appears bright with the news of an industrial park coming up for the industry, certain factors like shortage of skilled labour threatens to hamper the development of the industry," S Mahesh, president, Coirpith and Allied Products Manufacturers' Association, said.

Stating that fibre extraction requires hard physical labour similar to that of working in a farm, Mahesh said that labourers, mostly youth, who prefer lean jobs, have switched to spinning mills and knitwear units in Tirupur, lured by the good salary and other benefits offered by them.

"The daily wage in the industry is between Rs 50 and Rs 100, whereas in the textile units they get double the amount," he added. Due to the labour shortage, many fibre extraction units were forced to run just one shift and around 30 per cent of the curling machinery remained idle, he added.

Despite ensuring quality and getting good supply of raw material, the Pollachi units are not able to prosper in the field as there is no sizeable direct export with value addition. Moreover, there have been no major upgradations in the machinery for more than a decade as no major engineering manufacturer has so far shown any interest in this regard.

"To overcome the problem of labour shortage, we hire workers from the economically backward North Eastern states like Orissa, Assam and Manipur. However, half the problem could be solved if we go in for automation of most of the production processes. But the cottage industry is unable to invest huge amount on automation," Mahesh said.

He added that the government should come forward to offer financial assistance at low interest rates for the upgradation of the coir industry in the region.