Save our golden fibre

As the country's jute sector has been facing a serious crisis because of the falling demand of jute and jute goods in the international markets, mostly Turkey and India, it's time we found out the problems facing our jute industry and addressed them. According to the Export Promotion Bureau, shipment of jute goods, including jute yarn, which is the main export earner in the sector, dipped 23 percent year-on-year to USD 532 million until March of the current fiscal year. Also, exports of traditional jute goods have been falling in the face of competition from low-priced polypropylene and synthetic goods. In addition, the domestic market is also not growing much because of poor performance by the BJMC, market-distorting activities and limited capacity of private millers as well as a lack of varied products.

Making diversified jute products should be a priority for us, if we want to revive our jute sector. Currently, only a handful of private and public mills and small entrepreneurs are producing differentiated jute goods in the country. The government's 20 percent cash incentive for making diversified jute products will not help, if the prices of raw materials remain high and the decades-old machinery, mostly in the state-run mills, is not replaced with modern ones. Also, the lack of innovation and research in making diversified goods remains a big issue for our jute sector, which should be addressed properly. India and China have made a lot of progress in this regard over the last two-three decades. If they can do it, being a major supplier of jute products globally, why can't we? We just need to make some sincere efforts. And for our domestic market to grow, we need to strictly enforce the Mandatory Jute Packaging Act passed some nine years ago.