An expert consultation meeting was held at the CPD office yesterday to discuss the objective, scope and implementation strategy of the planned study, says a press release.

Preliminary analysis of the CPD reveals that the area under jute cultivation in Bangladesh during 2006-07 was 10.34 lakh acres and the total production was 48.84 lakh bales. Although the jute acreage has reduced by 8.3 per cent over the last six years, jute production has increased by 3.2 per cent. In 2005-06, the total production of jute goods was 2.7 lakh tonnes, a 15.8 per cent reduction over the last six years.

Over the last 25 years, production of raw jute and jute goods came down by 1.3 per cent and 53.9 per cent respectively. In India, raw jute and jute goods output during the same period increased by 1.5 per cent and 42.5 per cent respectively.

Export of jute goods during FY2005-06 was 2.10 lakh tonnes, which shows a reduction of 16.6 per cent over the last six years. However, export earning from raw jute has posted a 142.65 per cent rise over the last six years.

Government data for December 2006 indicates that among the public sector jute mills, 25 were in operation whilst 2 were closed, while in the private sector, 54 jute mills were in operation and 13 were closed.

The total number of private jute spinning mills was 50. In recent times, the government has declared that it is going to shut down 4 jute mills and about 14,000 jute workers will lose their jobs.

To this end, CPD will soon initiate an extensive field survey. Funded by CPD's own resources, this study will hopefully be completed in three months. CPD's study will undertake an in-depth investigation of the entire value chain in the jute sector, begining with production and processing and ending with marketing and export of jute goods.

Chaired by Professor Rehman Sobhan, the meeting was attended by concerned government officials, private sector entrepreneurs and exporters, trade union leaders and experts in the jute sector. Among others, Md Fazlul Haque, joint secretary (Policy), Ministry of Textile and Jute, Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam, director general, Directorate of Jute, Kamran T Rahman, chairman, Bangladesh Jute Mills Association, Shabbir Yusuf, chairman, Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (BJSA), Mahmudul Huq, vice chairman, BJSA, Md Rezaul Karim, chairman, Bangladesh Jute Association (BJA), Dr Firoze Shah Sikder, director general, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) and Dr Ameerul Islam, former DG, BJRI, Dr A B M Abdullah, executive director, Jute Diversification Promotion Centre, Professor Shamsul Alam, member, National Relief Committee, Shahidullah Chowdhury, executive president, Bangladesh Trade Union Kendro, Shirin Akhter, president, Kormojibi Nari, Shah Alam, secretary, People's Commission on Jute, attended the meeting.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive director of CPD, Professor Mustafizur Rahman, research director, and Dr Uttam Kumar Deb, senior research fellow, also took part in the discussion.