The government is eying alternative jute markets in Africa and Middle East countries in the wake of substantial fall in the export of jute goods to key export markets.
The falling in export led to piling up of unsold stock of about 75,000 tones of jute goods in the 27 public sector’s jute mills, creating huge financial burden, according to Bangladesh Jute
Mills Corporation (BJMC).
The value of the unsold stock is estimated to be Tk 750 crore, BJMC sources said.
“The stock has been lying idle for months, creating huge financial crisis for the public jute mills. The situation led to non-payment of salaries of hundreds workers of the mills,” a senior BJMC official, told The New Nation yesterday, asking not to be named.
He added: The unsold stock of jute goods plunged the BJMC into a critical situation forcing the government to find alternative export market.
He said, a delegation comprising officials of the jute ministry would soon visit African and Middle Eastern countries to explore the new jute market for the country.
The team would meet the concerned government officials of the countries with supports from the Bangladesh missions, he said.
To discuss the matter, the Ministry of Jute and Textile, convened a meeting last week with the Jute Minister Emaj Uddin Pramanik in the chair. After reviewing the entire amount of problem, the ministry decided to send a delegation to search new export markets.
The team will initially pay visit to Nigeria, Morocco and Oman,” the official added.
He further said that the export of jute products suffered a setback due to unrest in different countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa while the export to Syria remained stopped. The export volume to the Middle Eastern and North African countries came down to almost half due to crisis in Egypt and Libya.
Different countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa used to import around 1.25 lakh tonnes of jute products from Bangladesh before the crisis erupted in Egypt, Syria and Libya.
Industry insiders said, not only raw jute, semi-finished jute goods such as yarn and twine has also been showing a downtrend since the beginning of the current fiscal due to sluggish demands from the major buying nations.
