The government must now move with a real sense of urgency to effectively promote new uses of jute. Government should particularly encourage the private sector to this end providing on its part fiscal and monetary supports plus advisory and technical assistance. If projects involving novel uses of jute see the light of day at the fastest, the new jute based projects will be using jute in large quantities. Thus, the demand for raw jute will continue to be high and farmers will continue to benefit by producing ample quantities of raw jute to meet the high demand. Other intermediaries in the jute trade will also not be adversely affected. More significant will be increased earnings from the new jute based products including earnings in foreign currencies.
Diversified uses of jute in Bangladesh have long awaited commercial exploitation although it should have been realised long ago that such uses of jute only could restore the glory that jute once enjoyed in the country’s export trade. The traditional uses of jute as packing materials lost considerable from the invention of synthetic materials. Therefore, the present need is to only fast diversify into other products by using jute.
Some years ago it was learnt that the paper mills in Bangladesh would be using jute sticks and jute plants to make pulp from which different types of paper including the finer varieties would be produced . But since then, the momentum to produce paper from jute has mysteriously died down. Among the raw materials for producing various types of paper, jute is recognised as one of these raw materials of the superior category.
It is regrettable that this country spends precious foreign currency in importing huge quantities of paper, including newsprint and other types of quality paper, when it can save the entire amount and improve its balance of payments position by producing and meeting all its demands for paper at home by utilising jute. Bangladesh can also probably turn out to be a major exporter of paper in the international market producing paper from jute.
Years ago, jute’s uses in the form of jute plastics, as yarn for cloth making, as cloth for upholsteries in cars and furniture, for matting embankments and a host of its other uses were invented. Significantly, the prospects for greater use of jute products have brightened worldwide. The environmental concern is peaking all over the world and manufacturers are increasingly searching for environment friendly and biodegradable products to replace synthetic or plastic products which are now considered as environmentally unsound.
Private entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, on their own, should have worked on these inventions with a view to promoting them or attracting foreign capital to set up joint venture schemes for transforming the inventions —regarding new uses of jute— into commercial realities. But private entrepreneurs in Bangladesh in many cases are found very slow. Therefore, it is imperative for the relevant ministry to work out a plan to promote the new jute based products by engaging in a series of result-oriented dialogue with members of the private sector of both home and abroad.
Under WTO guidelines, the use of synthetic fibres could be prohibited worldwide and opportunities would be created for the use of natural fibres instead. The automobile industries worldwide include huge enterprises and in the wake of the prohibition on artificial materials much prospects could be created for the use of jute products in this industry. Typically, an automobile uses artificial fibre based products as its parts in thirty-seven places. After the introduction of the WTO regulation, the same thirty-seven parts could be made from jute to meet the needs of the regulation. Thus, much demand for these jute based products could be created internationally and Bangladesh would be in a leading position to meet this international demand.
Thus, at a time when traditional products are facing setbacks, new value added products made out of jute can be prove to lucrative for sustaining and expanding the demand for growing jute and, more significantly, to very substantially increase earnings from jute at all levels.
