Fair price of jute despite the temporary closure of the state-owned mills has brought cheers the jute growers.
Fair price is virtually encouraging the farmers to bring more land under jute cultivation to bring the next season.
The abrupt decision of the government for temporary closure of jute mills raised concern among the farmers who felt that they would not be able to sell their produce at fair prices.
However, private jute mills’ demand for the golden fiber has turned their fear into satisfaction.
According to information received from correspondentsbased in the jute-producing districts of the country--Magura, Faridpur, Bogura, Pabna, Jashore, Tangail jute is now selling at Tk 2100 to Tk 2500 per mound based on quality. Farmers look happy as the price of jute is satisfactory, they said.
A Magura-based jute trader said, "As many jute mills were closed, we became hesitant to buy jute. While harvesting started, different private jute mills asked for jute offering a good price. This is obviously a good news for farmers and traders as well."
Farmers at Shirajganj said, at the beginning of the harvesting jute price per mound stood at more than Tk 2000, on the other hand demand for jute chalk is also higher this season. As a whole, they are getting fair price of their produces."
According to PalliProkriti (an agriculture and environment based NGO), shut-down of jute mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) will not create on jute price as the public sector buys only 8.8 percent of jute of the total production while private jute mills buy about 92 percent.
On the other hand, the government data showed, approximately 295,000 tonnes of jute and jute–like fibres were imported worldwide in 2018. In the meantime, many foreign countries like Pakistan and China have shown interest in importing jute from Bangladesh.
Director General of the Jute Department SaudagarMostafizur Rahman told Bangladesh Post, "Farmers are getting fair price at the beginning of the jute season which will inspire them to cultivate more jute next year. Farmers will not face price-drop due to temporary closure of BJMC jute mills rather its demand is increasing due to the tri- nation trade tension among India, Pakistan, and China".
" We have a target to produce 82 lakh bales of jute this year which is 14 lakh bales higher compared to previous year. Despite the impact of coronavirus, the jute sector witnessed 54 percent growth than the last year. We are hopeful that the positive grand on the sector will continue," he added.
While asked if the temporary closure of BJMC jute mills would impact the production, he replied, "No, rather we will require a huge quantity of jute when BJMC will completethe renovation. The mills under the government and private partnership are looking forward to making the sector more profitable. The local jute demand will then increase."
MdRashedul Karim Munna, managing director of Creation Private Limited, a jute goods manufacturer, told Bangladesh Post, "Due to the temporary closure of BJMC jute mills, some private jute mills as usual wanted to avail of the opportunity. Traditional jute goods prices have already increased by 15 percent to 18 percent. On the other hand, as most of the jute fields were submerged under flood water, seasonal traders feared that this year they would not be able to collect good quality jute as per expectation as a result, at the beginning, they started purchasing jute at a high price."
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), last year the country produced 68 lakh bales (one bales weighing 182 kg) of jute. The target for the current season is to produce 82 lakh bales of jute. This season, jute has been cultivated on around eightlakh hectares of land. Half of the total jute harvesting is about to be completed.
This time 26,096 hectares of jute land have been submerged under the flood waters. Even then, the concerned officials of the department are hopeful that the production of jute this year will be higher than that of the last year.
According to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the jute and jute goods sector fetched export earnings of US$74.88 million in July of the current fiscal year (2019–20). This was up from the US$ 74.26 million recorded for the same period in the previous financial year, thereby showing a steady growth of 0.83 per cent.
Government data showed, around 40 lakh farmers are involved in jute cultivation as the jute industry contributes 0.26 percent to the country’s GDP.
