Record jute selling price forces 40 mills to shutter operations
Jute mills are actually closing as they are failing to choose the natural fibre while the price has reach the record level and showed zero signs of cooling down, said the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA).
Forty jute mills have suspended procedure in the last one to two a few months. Mills are running procedure below their capacity, BJMA Chairman Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman Patwari informed The Daily Star.
The price of raw jute went up to Tk 5,800 to Tk 6,300 per maund the other day, the best on record, up from Tk 5,000-Tk 5,500 the prior week, the BJMA said in a press release.
Rates of raw jute started out rising after harvesting started in the July-August period last year amid speculations that development fell as a result of floods and unfavourable weather condition.
Raw jute rates crossed Tk 3,000 per maund in September amid stockpiling by middlemen and the slow let go by farmers wanting to make a profit.
"No-one had experienced such a cost previously," said Patwari.
The BJMA said the supply available in the market had been low and the middlemen and stockists were taking good thing about the reduced yield and stockpiling the fibre to create higher profits.
"Despite having a lot of export orders, it is not possible to export because of too little raw jute," said Patwari.
Production stood at 55 lakh bales within the last time against the gross annual demand of 60 lakh bales from industries to create jute yarn, twine, sacks and carriers, millers said.
The total requirement of raw jute, including household use and export is 73 lakh bales, meaning a shortage of 18 lakh bales.
The trade body demanded the government perform drive through mobile courts to prevent illegitimate stockpiling, which is creating the crisis.
