Jute sector in dire straits
The government must set it right
There is hardly any question that Bangladesh's jute sector has over the years declined from a state of the sublime to one of the ridiculous. The facts speak for themselves. In the period immediately following liberation, the number of workers in the jute mills totalled 250,000. Today, full time as well as part time workers make up a figure of just 45,000. Of a total of 77 jute mills, the government is interested in managing only 14 mills. When it comes to the issue of a purchase of jute, the target of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation in the last financial year was 260,000 metric tonnes. In actuality, it was able to procure only 125,000 metric tonnes, jute acreage having shrunk considerably. Overall, the picture in the jute sector has not exactly been an edifying one.
The shutdown of jute mills, beginning with Adamjee in 2002, has gone on unabated, with the result that thousands of workers and their families have been pushed into a state of uncertainty. While that is the reality in Bangladesh, the situation is precisely the reverse in India, where a spate of jute mills establishment has been going on for the past several years. That is the irony for Bangladesh. From having been a premier jute producing country, in the global sense of the term, it now has an apology of a jute industry. The fine jute and jute products that Bangladesh once produced have depressingly been supplanted by products of suspect quality. Jute does not need to be in such a state since a rise in oil prices has led to a pushing up of the cost of synthetic production. Besides, synthetics are also increasingly being regarded as environment-unfriendly. As a result, there has been a trend back toward a use of natural fibres, a situation that India through its jute mills has clearly taken advantage of. We in Bangladesh in similar manner should seize the opportunity to rebuild our jute industry.
The present government, in our view, is well placed to cause a rejuvenation in the jute sector through a formulation of credible programmes regarding jute development. That calls for a return to the production of quality jute, diversification of jute products and a purposeful marketing campaign towards promoting them globally. We have heard about a national committee on jute being formed. We will urge the committee to energetically pursue its terms of reference and come up with a diagnostic report on the state of the sector and what can be done to have it make a turnaround. Meanwhile, let a meaningful dialogue be conducted in the public domain between all stakeholders on the issue. Jute certainly calls for some hard rethinking on our part.
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