Boats loaded with clay used to once dot the Chaliyar river around Feroke as they ferried raw material to the factories lining the river banks. In them, the clay got moulded into roof tiles that gave homes in Kerala an idyllic snugness that still lingers in thoughts of home.
The finished product would even be taken to the nearby port of Beypore to be shipped abroad. So much were the commodity in popular demand.
The tile factory chimneys still dominate the riverscape, but they serve more as a testimony to the past as the heydays of the industry is almost gone. And now with the latest COVID-19 blockade, threat of being snuffed out looms large over the already shrunken line of work.
There were more than 15 tile factories in Feroke and nearby Cheruvannur-Nallalam within the Kozhikode Corporation limits. Now just around four function, and that too in fits and starts. Modern trends in construction now replace the traditional methods.
“Part of the crisis is due to the severe restrictions on clay mining in the State,” says K. Murugan, managing director (MD) of the Standard Tile and Clay Works at Feroke, established in 1916 and managed by a director board of workers since 1978.
The months of March and April are when the clay is extracted for the tiles to be made. With the lockdown now in place, whatever little was left of the trade too has been stalled, he adds. The inter-State traffic curbs has also made it tough to get the clay from Karnataka, which used to supply part of the raw material demand.
“We don’t think that the industry can resume production any time sooner,” says V.V. Shivan, MD of Star Tile Works, which is located on the banks of nearby Kallayi river. This factory, established in 1921, has also been managed by a worker-controlled director board for over 40 years.
The few tile factories that are still running include the two plants controlled by the Comtrust. Several tile factories in the area were closed one after another over the last few decades. In the past three-and-a-half years alone, four factories went bust. Many of the closed factories settled their statutory dues and liabilities by selling their land. Some of the erstwhile tile factories are now resorts. According to industry sources, one of the reasons for the present crisis in the tile industry is its failure to modernise and diversify.
“The tile industry of Feroke reached its heydays during 1955 and 1975 when it employed over 4,000 workers,” says Subramanyan Nair, a leader of tile workers’ union, who also served as MD of the Standard Tile and Clay Works. According to him, the Feroke tiles are still in great demand despite the availability of cheaper imported clay tiles. But the issue is about pricing. Due to competition from imported Chinese ceramic tile, price of tiles cannot be hiked to match their production cost, he adds.
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