Jute products worth nearly Tk859 crore have remained unsold for a couple of months at different jute mills under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation.
Against this backdrop, the BJMC is facing fund crunch to pay the employees and workers. A number of 26 BJMC jute mills failed to pay their workers their weekly wages for about two weeks.
“Jute products could not be sold due to frequent hartals and blockades before the January 5 general elections while political turmoil in some jute importing countries, including Syria, had caused such a situation,” Textiles and Jute Minister Md Emaz Uddin Pramanik told the Dhaka Tribune at his office on Thursday.
Besides, India, the largest importer of Bangladeshi jute products, has reduced import of jute goods for several months, the minister added. India imports 63% raw jute and jute products.
Pramanik said his ministry had taken measures to expedite sales of jute goods, revamp jute sector and protect jute growers. “We will seek additional budgetary allocation for jute sector in the next budget,” the minister said.
Officials concerned said Syria, Sudan, Morocco, Turkey, Oman, Saudi Arabia and UAE also import jute products from Bangladesh, but these countries have decreased import of jute products due to internal crisis.
An eight-member delegation, led by BJMC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Humayun Khaled, is scheduled to leave on April 12 for Morocco, Nigeria and Oman.
“We have arranged meetings with government officials and people from private sector in the three countries to expedite sales of our jute products,” the BJMC chairman said yesterday.
According to BJMC sources, around 75,000 workers work at 26 jute mills.
“We have sought Tk200 crore as loan from the government to cope with the crisis and the situation would improve within a few months,” Khaled said.
Sources say India has slowed import due to devaluation of rupee.
According to BJMC, jute mills produce 2.50 lakh tonnes of jute goods a year while BJMC earns Tk950 crore by exporting about 2.20 lakh tonnes of jute goods per year.
