Agriculture
Utilization of land area in Karur district is up to 44.59%. 4.76% of the land area remains as other uncultivated land. 2.74% is forest area in Karur district.
Black soil is the predominant soil type in this district accounting for 35.51% followed by lateritic soil for 23.85%. The remaining 20.31% is alluvium soil.
The main crops are Paddy, Banana, Sugarcane, Beetle leaf, Grams & Pulses, Tapioca, Kora grass, Groundnuts, Oil seeds, Tropic-Vegetables, Garland Flowers, Medicinal Herbals etc.
Home textiles
Karur a tex-city is famous for its home textiles. Karur has a niche in five major product groups — bed linens, kitchen linens, toilet linens, table linens and wall hangings. Overall Karur generates around Rs.6000 crores ($300 million dollars a year) in foreign exchange through direct and indirect exports. Allied industries like ginning and spinning mills, dyeing factories, weaving etc. employs around 300,000 people in and around Karur.
On the international textile map Karur has become synonymous with hand-loom “made-ups” first as Tirupur in the hosiery product. The weaving industry of Karur and has earned a reputation for its high quality hand-loom products today. Hand-loom Exports from Karur began on a modest scale with just 15 exporters in 1975 and today Karur has thousands of exporters and the products are supplied to world leading chain stores like Wal-Mart, Target, IKEA, JC Penny, Ahlens etc.
The hand-loom products being exported have been broadly classified under three heads viz., kitchen, bathroom and bedroom furnishing items. Some of the hand-loom made-ups exported from Karur are Bedspreads,Sheet sets, Towels, Floor rugs, Tea towels, Napkins, Aprons, Kitchen towels, Pot holders, Plate mats, Bathmats, Tea mats, Curtains, Pillow, Quilt covers, Shower curtains (above 500 classified varieties).
Paper
TNPL is promoted by the Government of Tamil Nadu with loan assistance from the World Bank. Today TNPL is the 2nd largest producer of bagasse (sugarcane waste from Sugar mills) based paper in the world and the largest paper producer in Asia. TNPL produces 230,000 tons of Printing & writing paper and consumes 1 million tones of bagasse every year.
Bus body building
Karur is a hub for bus body building industries. Most of the South Indian private bus bodies are built in Karur. The total business from building bus bodies is estimated to be around Rs.324 crore per annum.
Cement
Karur is also home to Chettinad Cements. It has an installed production capacity of 600,000 tons per annum, with another 1.1 million tons expansion in the pipeline.
Sugar
EID Parry has a sugar factory in Pugalur, Karur. It has a capacity of 4000 TCD per year. It also has a 22 MW co-generation Power plant, with TNPL.
Banking
Karur is the home town of India's oldest private scheduled banks, The Karur Vysya Bank and The Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
HDPE Monofilaments
HDPE monofilament and associated product manufacturing. It’s mainly for manufacture of Mosquito Nets. Above 80% of plastic nets in India are made in Karur.
Gem Stones
The Karur belt also produces some very good Cats eyes, Feldspar, Moonstones, Aquamarines, Quarts, Sapphires, Jasper and Beryls.
Blue Metals
Karur Blue Metals Companies supplies 40 mm aggregate, 12 – 20 mm aggregate, 6mm aggregate, Crusher dust, Big Rock boulders of any size and weight as specified by our customers. River sand – Coarse and Fine.
