The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mashiur Rahaman with Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Bangladeshi export of jute products to India during the first seven months (January to July) of this year (2008) is likely to surge by 115 per cent in value as the Indian Government removed import duty on jute products and some other goods, including raw jute from Bangladesh, sources close to the industry said yesterday.

Statistic compiled by the Indian Government showed, imports of jute products during January-July 2007 stood at 34,208 tons, it will go up to 61,158 tons during the same period in 2008. Import tax liberalization policy of the Indian Government will encourage importers to import more as most Indian jute industries largely depend upon this imported jutes.

However, raw jute imports from the Bangladesh are also likely to go up by 35 per cent in volume and 7.2 per cent in value during this period as targeted by the Indian Government's policy statement. Imports of raw jute are expected to go up to 6.69 lakh bales from the previous 4.94 lakh bales. In value terms, the rise will be from Tk215 lakh to Tk230.48 lakh.

However, exports earnings went up from Tk4403.2 lakh to Tk 4437.6 lakh during the period on rise in global prices. The cost of imports will rise from Tk1370.324 lakh to Tk295.84 lakh during the period.

Raw jute consumption by the Indian mills sector was around 68 lakh bales till end-February 2008. If raw jute consumption by jute mills till June 2008 continued to follow the same pattern as hitherto, raw jute consumption by the mills sector in the 2007-08 jute year (July-June) would be around 95 lakh bales.

With another nine lakh bales being consumed by the domestic sector and other industries, the total consumption in the current jute year in India is estimated to be around 104 lakh bales.

However, according to the Jute Advisory Board of India, the size of the 2007-08 jute crop has officially been pegged at 97 lakh bales. Import of jute from Bangladesh in the current jute year was eight lakh bales. As such, the total raw jute available in the 2007-08 jute year was 128 lakh bales.