Kolkata, Sept. 17 Global recession, coupled with industrial unrest in the jute goods manufacturing units and higher price of jute products in the country, has brought about a substantial dip in the volumes of jute trading and exports over the last few years, according to Mr Kamal G. Toolsidass, former President, Gunny Trade Association and East India Jute and Hessian Exchange.
“Export of jute goods dropped by 9.5 per cent in 2008-09, against that in 2007-08. In order to scale up our exports we need to take immediate steps such as modernisation of jute mills, expansion of manufacturing capacity, providing with adequate raw material at normal prices, cost reduction and so on,” said Mr Raj Kumar Agrawal, President, Gunny Trades Association, while speaking at its 84th annual general meeting here on Wednesday.
The low-price jute goods from Bangladesh and Nepal were also posing a challenge for the growth of jute exports in the country, Mr Toolsidass pointed out.
There has been a sizeable shrinkage in the volume of the traders in jute industry, Mr Toolsidass said, and added, “Trade acts as a bridge between the manufacturers and consumers and provides liquidity to the market, traders, therefore, should get their due share to enable them to provide quality service to both manufacturer and consumer.”
Alternative packaging
There has also been a lot of fluctuation in the prices of raw jute, causing irreparable loss and compelling customers to shift to cheaper alternative packaging where fluctuations were at a minimum, he observed.
“This is an alarming situation and once a customer switches to alternative packaging it will be difficult to bring them back to jute bags even when there is a reduction in prices of jute goods at a later date,” he added.
Source : Business Line