How it’s made
Four stages take a coconut husk to a finished mat, scrubber or graded fibre rod. None of them is complicated, and all of them are done by people rather than machines.
- Freshly harvested coconuts stacked beside a grove
01
Harvest
Nuts are collected from smallholder groves after they fall. The husk, which is the part we need, is separated from the shell by hand.
- Coir fibre being combed out from soaked husks
02
Retting and fibre extraction
Husks are soaked until the fibre loosens from the pith, then beaten and combed out. The pith that remains goes back to growers as a soil conditioner rather than to waste.
- A maker winding graded coir fibre into a rod
03
Making
Fibre is graded by stiffness, then wound into rods, set into drilled hardwood, looped into a tawashi knot or loomed into matting, depending on the product. Rods cut to length leave here as a raw material in their own right.
- Finished goods being inspected and packed into cartons
04
Checking and packing
Every item is checked by hand for loose fibre, finish and dimension before it is packed. Cartons are made up to the quantities agreed for your order.