Products worth Tk 400 crore of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation have remained unsold for one year due to economic recession and political
instability in the major export destinations.
According to BJMC officials, the production in the state-owned jute mills has increased but a number of traditional markets in the Middle East slashed their import as they are facing internal political turmoil for long.
Besides, the US and European Union — the major destinations of carpet backing cloths — have reduced more than one third of their import as they have been passing through economic crisis for the last few years, the officials said.
Despite sluggish export on the traditional market the BJMC will achieve more than 20 per cent growth as the new markets are helping to cover up the negative growth, said Mazharul Haque, general manager (marketing) of the corporation.
He said that the overall export of jute goods was maintaining a slow-moving trend for the last few years. But the export of sacking bags and hessian witnessed a drastic fall in last year as Iran — the main importer of these items — is facing economic sanction imposed by the US and another major destination Sudan is crippled with financial crisis.
Due to the economic sanction Iran could not import hessian from Bangladesh whereas it used to import the item 40,000 to 50,000 of bells in a year.
Hessian worth Tk 200 crore, sacking bags worth Tk 100 crore and carpet backing cloths worth Tk 90 crore have remained unsold for the last one year, said Mazharul.
The jute sacking bags have remained unsold as some major destinations Sudan, Egypt and Libya reduced import of the item, he said.
The imports from Egypt and Libya were affected due to their internal political turmoil, he added.
BJMC director (finance) Mohammad Ali Chowdhury said though the traditional markets were maintaining negative growth, the new markets like Thailand and India would be helpful to cover up the export slowdown.
He said that the export earning of BJMC amounted to Tk 956 crore with 20 per cent growth in the first nine months and the corporation was likely to earn Tk 1,500 crore from export in the current financial year.
New Age staff correspondent in Khulna reported that 5,277 tonnes of jute goods worth over Tk 50 crore have remained unsold only in the warehouse of state-owned Khalishpur Jute Mills in the Khulna city.
According to the project director of the mill Molla Alamgir Hossain, Khalishpur Jute Mills produced 22,215 tonnes of export quality jute goods in the last two years.
Of the total production, 16,938 tonnes could be exported to Iran, Iraq, India, Syria, Thailand, South Africa and Sudan.
The project director said the jute mill needed huge amount of money for payment of wages, salaries and other financial benefits to its 65 officials, 239 employees and over 3,000 workers.
-With New Age input
