Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Jitan Ram Manjhi today said that the annual exports of coir and coir products have increased substantially during the last fiscal. Addressing media persons in Kochi, the Union Minister said the annual exports during the last financial year touched 3,388 crore rupees, while the coir production increased to 7.9 lakh tonnes. He said the target of exports for the next financial year has been fixed at 5,000 crore rupees. Taking into account several factors including raw material scarcity, competition from synthetic materials, and lack of modernisation, he said the Coir Board will focus more on the development of pollution-free technology for optimizing coir pith processing parameters.