BJMC exporting Tk670m hessian cloth to China

The Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has started exporting 15,000 bales of hessian cloth worth Tk 670 million to China, officials said.
The first-ever shipment of hessian cloth to China was made in December 2013. And so far, 8,700 bales of the product were exported to the Sinochem Plastic Company based in Shanghai, China.      
Hessian cloth- an environment friendly product- has a wide demand in China for preserving tobacco leaf.
China has started stopping production of hessian cloth because of high labour cost there. The labour cost in China is six to seven times higher than Bangladesh, giving the latter an ample opportunity to export hessian cloth there.  
"China is a big market for exporting jute goods, especially hessian cloth. Our export will grow significantly in China if we could grab a significant portion of the market," Babul Chandra Roy, director  (marketing) of the BJMC told the FE.   
Apart from exporting 15,000 bales of hessian cloth, the BJMC is going to get more orders from different Chinese buyers.
The BJMC is actively considering to send a high- powered delegation to China to know about the real market scenario in the second largest economy of the world.
"We are seriously considering to send a team to China to explore the market size there for increasing  export of hessian cloth," a high official of the Ministry of Textiles and Jute told the FE.
He said if the country grabs a significant portion of the Chinese market for hessian cloth, then it will help lessen a huge trade gap with China.
Bangladesh has a massive trade deficit with China, which imported goods worth only $485 million against its $6.3 billion exports in 2013 fiscal.
The BJMC exported 177,037 tonnes of jute goods worth Tk 13.63 billion to different countries during the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13. From July 2013 to April 2014, the BJMC exported 67,876 tonnes of jute goods worth Tk 5.03 billion.