The fourth edition of the world’s biggest trade event on coir and natural fibers will begin in Kerala’s Alappuzha town Saturday with a lineup of new products and machinery designed to drive up production and exports.

Defense Minister AK Antony will open the five-day Coir Kerala 2014 at a ceremony presided over by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at EMS Stadium in Alappuzha, officials said.

Around 160 foreign delegates from more than 46 countries and nearly 100 buyers from across India are expected to take part in the trade fair which targets export orders worth Rs 1.5 billion.

“While production and exports have seen a definite increase, our primary focus continues to be improving the lives of the workers in the coir industry and to create more employment in this sector,” Revenue and Coir Minister Adoor Prakash said.

In 2012-13, total coir exports from India were worth around Rs11.66 billion, up from Rs10.52 billion registered the previous year, and 70 percent of them was Kerala’s contribution.

“The government has raised the income support scheme amount for coir workers from just Rs 150 three years ago to Rs260 now, but we are aware that it is still below the earnings in many other skilled sectors and we are looking to address that disparity,” the minister said.

At Coir Kerala 2014, organized with the support of India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, there will be 250 exhibition stalls across the national and the international pavilion showcasing a range of fiber products and the increasing product diversity in the industry.

Some of the newly developed products include a collection of handicrafts and souvenirs, sound-absorbing materials designed for architecture and interior designing and environment-friendly coir geo-cells that prevent slope erosion and enable slope land cultivation at a time.

Also showcased at the fair will be new machinery and technologies designed to improve productivity in the sector. Among them a pneumatic loom for weaving geo-textiles and a revolutionary new defibering mill and developed by the National Coir Research and Management Institute (NCRMI), the coordinating agency for Coir Kerala 2014.

The defibering mill developed by NCRMI at its research and development facility here is designed to address the crippling shortage of raw material faced by the industry today. Fiber scarcity will be the discussion point with a series of seminars organized to help develop solutions.

“For the first time, a committee consisting of exporters, policymakers and subject experts is being constituted to see how the recommendations at these seminars and workshops can be put to practical use to aid product diversification,” said Rani George, secretary of Coir.

She said her department is in talks with the Coconut Development Board to create a mechanism where farmers’ societies from whom the board procures coconuts are able to supply coir fiber.

“‘The husk usually goes waste for them, we are looking to see if we can supply them with de-fibering machines to these farmers’ societies and buy back processed fiber and pith from them,” she said.

The Coir Department has been already been actively taking steps to address the crippling raw materials shortage that the coir industry in Kerala today faces.

Between November 2013 and January 2014 the government procured 14,000 quintals of coir fiber and distributed them through Coirfed to coir cooperatives at the standard rate of Rs20/kg of raw fiber at a time when the market prices had soared to between Rs26 and Rs28.

After being sidelined for decades by plastics and other synthetic material, coir and natural fiber are making a comeback thanks to the growing desire the world over for sustainable living and increased focus on R&D to add value and find new uses for these natural products.

Kerala initiated initiated the event in 2011 to revive the crisis ridden coir sector by boosting production and exports.

Coir Kerala has today morphed into an annual trade fair, facilitating not just buyer-seller interactions, but acting as a platform to showcase the newest products and latest technologies and machinery.

The international event also brings together scientists, researchers and policymakers to discuss strategies and new projects to create jobs, improve the conditions of workers, increase productivity and earnings across the industry.

But the most noteworthy aspect of Coir Kerala is the active participation in the event of thousands of coir workers in an around Alappuzha, the Venice of the East which is the nerve center of the coir industry in Kerala.

The preliminary stages of a number of skill contests and other competitions for coir workers are already underway.

The key Buyer-Seller meet enabling one-to-one interactions will be held on February 3 and on the final day of the event on February 5, Shri Adoor Prakash will interact directly with coir workers at a morning session expected to draw more than 2,000 people.

Cultural and entertainment programs, which have proven to be major crowd-pullers, will be held on all five days of the event.