Commercially viable projects in jute sector

SIXTEEN northern districts of Bangladesh have shown once again how hard-working and resilient people can be in the face of adversity. A decade after Adamjee Jute Mills was shut down, farmers of this versatile fibrous plant, grown on some 1.5 million hectares, were literally left in the lurch. But small scale private entrepreneurs salvaged ten to twenty of the still-usable looms from the defunct mills and set up business in the north. Thanks to them today, more than twenty modest mills are humming here, the price of raw jute is up, and Bangladesh's golden fibre now looks like regaining its former glory as an eminently profitable economic resource. So good are the signs, in fact, that a number of big players are also said to be interested in opening shop ---- one already has ---- which would obviously be larger, and might even drive the small ones out. This must be guarded against. With the right policy planning, keeping Shumacher's 'small is beautiful' philosophy in view, modest enterprises must be allowed to carry on, for the cost-benefit yields ---- in terms of the human economy and ecology --- are said to be greater than those from unwieldy enterprises. 'Live and let live' should be the moral principle, permitting people of all walks of life to manage a decent living in Bangladesh.
The good news is that both traditional jute goods and diversified use have been showing a growing trend, with the worldwide demotion of synthetics. However, those involved in developing this classic raw material into value-added products, complain that policy makers' words and the reality on the ground seldom match. The legendary golden fibre has immense potential -- paper pulp from green jute and yarn for household linen, upholstery and even clothing, not to forget existing items like carpets, rugs, twine and sacking. Jute goods exporters claim there is no valid reason why the sector should ever be sick as international demand for jute products is often found to be greater than the volume the mills here can deliver -- despite production capacity. It is curious, therefore, that on the one hand there is no end to the exhortation for non-traditional development of jute goods, while on the other everything has been going on to discourage entrepreneurs who have proved modestly successful in developing new products that are commercially viable.
Jute floor coverings, for example have won selected markets on account of the fibre's biodegradable as well as fire-retardant qualities. Yet policy-makers have been permitting the unimpeded import of synthetic floor coverings, and have also been taking a number of negative decisions that seemed to be designed to throttle the sector rather than revamp it. For example, instead of tackling the entrenched corruption and machinations of vested interest groups, that slowly but surely destroyed the Adamjee Jute Mills, the government had gone along with the World Bank prescription and closed down the largest jute corporation in the Asian continent, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, even while across the border the same World Bank inspired new jute mills in India's West Bengal.
Policy makers should put in a lot more thought into their decisions in this regard than they have done in the past. Serious efforts at research and development should be linked to commercially viable projects in the jute sector. Diversified products like hand-braided rugs, modeled on the specifications of guaranteed foreign buyers, have been found to do very well and could be replicated, provided buyers are located first. Other products catering to current taste in the developed world, which India and China have been tapping, need to be developed both for poverty alleviation and foreign exchange earnings. Manageable, market-oriented enterprises that really mean to do honest business, and enhance the lives of the masses, should therefore be getting as much government support as possible. Small will never cease to be beautiful for Bangladesh.