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Working to retain the golden fibre's sheen
India produces the largest amount of jute in the world. The country exports jute diversified products to many other nations. Jute bags, footwear, carpets, and other things manufactured from this natural fibre are all the rage now. Thus India has a vast potential for export in this particular segment.
Jute comes under the purview of the Textile Ministry, but the segment is big enough to warrant being called an industry of in its own right. The eco-friendly "Golden Fibre" has long been a revenue earner for India. The country produces jute in massive quantities and exports a lot of processed jute products. Europe and the United States of America remain the largest importer of Indian jute diversified products (JDP), at around 35 % and 28 % respectively, with Belgium topping the list country-wise. But Asian markets are widening, and India can do better in JDP exports to East Asian countries.
India's production of nearly 2 million tonnes of jute annually is the largest in the world, making up around 64 % of the world production. But the yield, that is, the tonnes of jute produced per hectare cultivated is lower than that of China, and presents an area for improvement. Especially so since this seemingly large production figures are not enough to satisfy even the domestic demand. To cater to this deficit, India imports raw jute. At the other end of the spectrum, India is also the world's second largest exporter of jute products. This may seem a contradiction in terms, but is explained by the fact that while the country imports raw jute, it is the traditional jute products and the jute diversified products that it exports.
Export of traditional jute products like hessian, carpet backing, sacking bags, jute yarn, etc. saw a jump of around 37% in the last financial year while jute diversified products hearteningly saw export growth of more than 70 %. Of the latter, jute handbags, carpets, mats and jute clothing bags were the most popular. The government had increased the capital subsidy to jute production units by 5 %, bringing it to 20% last year. External marketing assistance to these units by the government was also extended by a year.
Another area of focus for exports has been jute geotextiles. The world requirement is about 40 million square metres and it is, thus, a large market. Again, the USA and Europe would be the largest users.
The government has said it will concentrate on improving yield of the jute crop by developing high-yielding seeds, and improve the quality of the fibre by improving retting practices. The Technology Mission on Jute is still to come into form, but the positive note is that the Planning Commission has cleared Rs 460 crore towards the Mission and it has now to be sent for approval. But apart from this, we will have to do more research and development in this industry, ascertaining the market needs and trends in the JDP, for instance. With the world increasingly turning towards natural fibres as an alternative not just in textiles but in many other related product categories, the industry should actually be sitting pretty. But obviously it is not and we need to step up research activities to ascertain the various segments the industry can diversify into, and determine where value adds can be incorporated so as to move from commodity production to speciality production. Also, by decreasing costs at the cultivation and value addition stages, we can possibly maintain our price competitiveness in East Asia and improve it in Indonesia.
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