One of the big challenges for the county's jute exporting sector is getting raw materials, said Bangladesh Diversified Jute Products, Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Rashedul Karim Munna.
“There is a limitation in terms of getting raw materials for making diversified jute products in Bangladesh,” he said during an interview with Bangladesh First recently.
“India has more than 100 types of jute fabrics for making diversified jute products. They also can make quality products with the fabrics. On the other hand, Bangladesh has only four to five types of fabrics and the quality of the fabric is not that good,” he added.
Rashedul Karim Munna deemed the lack of raw materials as the foremost challenge for the sector.
“We are talking about diversified jute products, but we don’t have such raw materials for making such products,” he said,
At the same time, he thinks entrepreneurs in Bangladesh need to establish specialised jute mills which will not only make the fabric but will dye and have lamination facilities also so that they can make high-quality products.
“We have a ‘Jute Diversification Promotion Centre’ which is supposed to provide us with design, skill development and product development. The organisation is supposed to play roles in the local market as well as in the international market for selling our products like the National Jute Board in India. However, the organisation still runs on the project fund as a result it cannot meet entrepreneurs’ expectations because of the fund crisis,” he said.
Bangladesh is exporting 85% raw jute or yarn abroad or traditional jute goods, Rashedul Karim Munna said, adding, “It does not need compliance because they are making goods with the raw materials in their factory with the jute. 99% of the traditional jute mills do not have any compliance certificate in Bangladesh.”
Stating that the Indian government has four wings which are involved in product development or raw material development and hold around 20-25 international fairs for market expansion, Rashedul Karim Munna said he thinks the Bangladeshi government should showcase the jute industry abroad.
“Government has some soft loans for funding and Bangladesh Bank implements them. Bangladesh Bank is providing these soft loans to other sectors. The Jute sector is not getting such soft loans. Though jute is an agricultural product, it does not get the soft loan facilities because jute is not enlisted in the list of enterprises eligible for soft loans,” he further said,
Mentioning the 2% source tax on procuring raw jute from farmers, he said the government should waive it for the development of the industry.
“Again, there is a complexity in getting incentives for jute export. Bangladesh Bank will have to revise the existing circular to simplify the process of getting incentives for jute products export,” he added.
Rashedul Karim Munna said the RMG sector has become such a big industry because they have the facilities of the bonded warehouse.
“The government wants the jute and leather sector to get such facilities as the RMG sector has received. However, the NBR officials have a negative attitude that they do not want to provide licenses to new sectors,” he added.
