Prospect of jute goods high in EU

As stress on artificial fibres as a packaging material in preference to natural ones is growing, the prospects for jute, popularly known as the Golden Fibre, are opening up further. The International Jute Study Group (IJSG) based in Dhaka recently also echoed this view.
Bangladesh so far has hardly been able to make the most of this possibility, thanks to half-hearted approach of the government to provide enough incentive to the growers of this cash crop. Every year jute growers get frustrated with their products as they do not get fair price in the market. As a result, farmers are losing their interest in growing jute.
According to IJSG, the demand for jute products, especially jute bags, will rise to as high as 32 million bags annually compared to its present demand at 12 million bags. The European Union (EU) is also learnt to be considering imposing a ban on the use of polythene bags. So, time is propitious for Bangladesh to cash in on this opportunity as EU is our biggest market overseas.
It is worthwhile to note that, despite our strength in producing the best quality raw jute, Bangladesh is still not the leader of this commodity in the world. To overcome this shortcoming, we need to focus on making various jute-based products like shopping and food grade bags, geo-textiles, pulp and paper and so on as users are getting more biased towards green products.
To this end, it will be necessary to reinvigorate the sector with generous budgetary allocations. At the same time, the ailing state-owned jute mills have to be reinvigorated and new jute mills set up and where feasible replace the old production technologies with new ones.
It is reassuring to note that the private sector is prepared to play a very proactive role in the jute sector. Now the government needs to facilitate them with necessary policy support.
Overall, the government must consider jute as a thrust sector and go all-out to turn it into the next hard-cash earning sector after the readymade garments.