Jute Industry in Bangladesh Is Recovering

Jute industry in Bangladesh is recovering, but foreign investment is needed and Chinese companies are welcomed to invest in the industry, said Bhuyian Shafiqul Islam, director general of the Department of Jute under the country's Ministry of Textile and Jute.

The jute industry is recovering with production and export on the rise after experiencing years of slump due to decline in demand at the world market, Islam said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The government has been taking various measures to revive the industry. Islam said, efforts are made to develop environment- friendly and diversified jute products to meet the rising demand at the world market.

Jute, the Golden Fibre of the country, once played a very important role in Bangladesh 's economy in the 1970s when it played as the largest producer of jute as well as the largest exporter of raw jute and jute goods in the world. As the main cash crop in the country, jute contributed about 80 percent of the total export earning.

However, since the 1980s, the use of synthetics has led to sharp decline in demand for traditional jute products at the world market, which had a significantly adverse impact on the jute industry in the South Asian nation.

Bangladesh 's share in world jute market has also been reducing with decline in both jute production and export.

According to the Agricultural Ministry statistics, the jute production in 1999-2000 fiscal (July 1999-June 2000) was 3.92 million bales (about 705,780 tons), while in the 1980s the production once marked a highest record of 8.66 million bales ( about 1.56 million tons).

Jute export earning also decreased sharply with the share of the total national foreign exchange earning standing at 5 percent or so at present.

As a result, many jute mills especially state-owned mills including Bangladesh 's largest state-owned Adamjee jute mills were shut down in the past years with tens of thousands of workers becoming jobless.

Compared with the poor performance of state-owned mills, Islam said, the private jute mills runs very well in recent years, which brings hope to restore the lost glory of the jute industry. Now there are 137 private jute mills and 18 state-owned mills all of which are not profitable.

As one of the measures the government is planning to introduce jute technology course in about 11 textile colleges. Besides, comprehensive reform program for the state-owned jute mills to make them profitable is underway.

Islam said, the jute sector is now recovering and the production and export is growing continuously in the last few years. In 2006-07 fiscal, the production of raw jute is 6.59 million bales (about 1.19 million tons), while the production of jute goods is 580,000 tons.

He said, Bangladesh now is the second largest jute producing country in the world only behind India , but still the largest exporter of raw jute and jute goods. According to Jute Ministry statistics, it meets more than 90 percent of world raw jute demand and about 65 percent of world jute goods demand.

At present, Islam said, lack of fund, old machineries, mismanagement, unskilled labors are the major challenges they are facing in the jute industry.

"Now, we cannot run big mills to produce high grade jute products, that's why we export large amount of raw jute every year, " he said.

He welcomes more Chinese companies to invest in jute industry and hoped they can set up big jute mills in Bangladesh .

Daji Jute Mills Ltd established in 1997 in Bangladesh 's eastern Comilla district is the only Chinese jute company so far. It mainly produces yarn with a capacity of 180 tons per month.

2008-03-17

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