A total of 92,37,000 pieces of jute sacks have remained unsold in the eight state-run jute mills of Khulna region, due to poor demand from the factories of sacking goods.
Authorities of different jute mills in the region said for such a staggering number of jute sacks lying unsold they are unable to pay wages of the workers.
Besides, demonstration of the workers of Platinum Jute Mills for payment of their arrear wages on January 8 and 9 turned the situation more complicated.
Sources at Bangladesh Jute Mill Corporation (BJMC) said all the state-run jute mills across the country, including Khulna, are continuing production of jute sacks following a directive issued by the authorities towards the end of October last year.
The authorities also set a target for producing 500,000 jute sacks in the factories a day, including 263,000 sacks for the eight state-run jute mills.
The jute mills are Crescent, Platinum, Khalishpur, Daulatpur, Star, Eastern, JJI and Carpeting Jute Mills.
Following the order, the eight state-run jute mills produced 13,088,044 jute sacks till January 12 this year, of which 3,850,445 have been sold. Accordingly, a total of 9,237,599 pieces of sacks now remain unsold.
Abu Sayed Md Mamunur Rahman, project chief of Platinum Jute Mills, said the stock of jute sacks was rising due to low response from the factories of six types of sacking goods, including paddy, rice, wheat, maize, fertiliser and sugar.
Jute sacks worth Tk11 crore have remained unsold and due to the situation, the mill authorities have failed to pay wages of the workers in time, he added.
Tofail Ahmed, project chief of Daulatpur Jute Mills, said the dealers have showed reluctance to purchase jute sacks; as a result, a good number of jute sacks have remained piled up in different mills.
Mahabbat Ali Mia, regional coordinator of BJMC, said dealers have been appointed for supplying jute sacks from the eight state-run jute mills.
Earlier, the dealers were to take four sacking jute bags against one hessian bag and due to low demand of the sacking bags it has reduced to 1:2.
As per the new condition, the dealers will have to take one sacking bag against one hessian bag now, he said.
Besides, due to high demand of hessian bags at the local market, demand of sacking bags has decreased, he added. He also said that the demand of sacking bags will increase during the upcoming potato season.
The government earlier made it mandatory by a law to use jute bags for packaging six types of essentials and a special drive was also launched against use of plastic bags in November last year.
