Kakinada palmyra fibre industry gasps for breath

Will palmyra fibre industry disappear from Kakinada in the coming years?

The fall of exports from 8,000 tonne to 1800 tonne during the last 10 years and exporters from 12 to 4 speaks for itself.

The writing on the wall seems to be clear as the industry is losing its ground year after year due to various reasons. Its inability to meet global standards, non-availability of quality palmyra fibre, skyrocketing processing charges and stiff competition from other countries have added to the woes of the industry.

In the face of declining business, the exporters are gradually turning their back on the industry, and moving to other trades.

Palmyra fibre is one of the oldest industries and also one of the export products of Kakinada Port.

In view of exorbitant handling charges at the Vizag port at Rs 700 per tonne, the traders export their product through Chennai Port where the charges are as low as Rs 200 per tonne. Another handicap is lack of container cargo facilities at Kakinada Port, according to traders.

The product has a unique characteristic of withstanding such stress that it is used in making industrial brushes and brooms in Europe and Japan for cleaning machineries.

Brushes made of palmyra fibre are ideally suited for lubricating machinery in Europe and South East Asia where the temperature reaches minus degrees. Under such extreme climatic conditions, only castor oil is used to lubricate machinery as it does not get hardened even at minus degree temperatures.

Kakinada, known as the centre of palmyra fibre in India, is exporting the highest quantity to countries like China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and some of the South East Asian countries. China is the largest importer of products from Andhra Pradesh.

Nidadavole of West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, Tuticorine in Tamil Nadu also export palmyra products. The neighbouring districts of Vizianagaram and Srikakulam have also entered the palmyra fibre industry during the last four years.

The palmyra fibre products are manually produced mostly by people belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in upland and agency areas in East Godavari. Hundreds of families in Makavanipalem in Narsipatnam mandal of Visakhapatnam district traditionally depend on this for their livelihood.

But, the tradition is gradually dying with younger generation aspiring for better vocation by improving their educational levels. This is also one of the reasons for the decline.

Cutthroat competition from Philippines, Thailand, Burma and Mexico is also contributing in no small measure to the problems of the industry. These countries are exporting much better quality products than those here.

The advent of synthetic fibre has also spelled doom for palmyra fibre products as most of the countries importing the latter are now turning to the former, though synthetic products cannot withstand as much heat as palmyra products.

"Mexico supplies superior quality fibre at $ 1,225 per tonne, while Kakinada palmyra fibre costs $ 1150-$ 1225 per tonne. Kakinada doesn't even match Tuticorine fibre in quality as well as the price because of high processing charges here,'' said VVKS Krishna, managing partner of Bangaru Checka & Co., which is the oldest palmyra fibre exporting company here.

He said the Pondicherry government encourages Tamil Nadu palmyra fibre industry by giving training to palmyra beaters so that quality products can be made.

The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) also chips in by supplying machines to manual beaters for making products with speed and ease. It is a different thing that machine-made products are not as strong as those made manually.

"The Andhra Pradesh government should take steps for reviving the industry by reducing taxes on raw material purchases and train beaters,"' said K Narasimha Rao, proprietor of KN & Co., Kakinada.