Bangladesh can save several billion dollars as import cost if the country’s spinning and textile mills use jute as a major alternative to cotton in producing yarn, experts said.
Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI) has recently innovated a method, through which they produced the finest quality spinning yarn (100 Tex) by adding chemical with jute, which can be used to produce export quality garments.
Experts observed that like the other competing countries in the world market, Bangladesh's textiles and ready-made garment industries will have to reduce dependency on cotton import and find an alternative to make progress in the coming days. Jute yarn can open up a new horizon in this respect, they noted.
While talking to Bangladesh Post, BJRI Director Dr Md Abul Kalam Azad said that the yarn produced from jute is 100 percent worthy of use in industries. It can be used in spinning or textile mills. The yarn can also be used in the RMG sector, he added.
‘‘As we largely depend on cotton import, use of jute yarn can reduce the dependency by up to 25 percent which can be extended to 50 percent gradually in the coming days,” he added.
Being asked about whether the country’s spinning and textile mill owners are interested in using jute yarn, he replied that they had held meetings with certain mill owners several times before and the businessmen also showed their interest. He hoped that soon the mill owners will start using the jute yarn in a large scale once the supporting technology is available in the country.
A BJRI scientist said lignin structure is the main difference between jute and cotton. Due to huge presence of lignin in jute, its fiber is thicker than cotton.
“But as the genetic characteristics of jute has been discovered, we are now trying to bring changes to its genetic characteristics so that we can produce cotton like yarn from jute,” he said adding, “The demise of our scientist Maksudul Alam hindered the progress but we now working on it.”
Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association Director Sheikh Shamsul Abedin told Bangladesh Post, “Our neighbouring country India is already producing Jute Katan cloths. We are lagging behind in this respect due to lack of modern technology and machineries.”
About RMG yarn he said, “If RMG industrialists put forward any demand and specification and the government helps us with modern technologies, then we will be able to provide them with best quality yarn from jute”. Mentionable, 97 percent of the country’s demand for cotton is fulfilled through import. To reduce this import dependency the government is eyeing to produce 2.5 lakh bales cotton by 2021.
The country’s spinning and textile mill owners spent $3 billion for importing cotton in fiscal year 2017-18. Renowned scientist Dr Mubarak Ahmed Khan told Bangladesh Post that jute yarn may have odour and that there might be difficulties in using colour with it. “But we have found a way to remove odour and adding color to it,” he noted.
About use of jute yarn use in RMG sector he said that research is going on to ensure jute usage in every sector.
