Home ›› 13 Aug 2022 ›› Front
Quality of golden fibers across the country has gone down due to crisis of clean water for retting while millers and exporters fear low foreign currency earnings because of reduction in export.
According to the officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), this year jute has been cultivated in more areas than the previous year but farmers have not had adequate clean water for retting jutes.
Farmers were compelled to ferment them in inadequate and dirty water while some farmers are still waiting for the rain to cut jutes from fields. Dirty water has affected both the color and quality of jute.
However, jute millers said the majority of jute plants had become over matured and hard with their brightness lost which would badly impact export to European and other developed countries.
According to the DAE, the government set the target of jute cultivation on 7.45 lakh hectares of land for the running season. But farmers cultivated jute on more than 7.53 lakh hectares of land.
The price was good in the previous year prompting farmers to cultivate jute more this year, DAE officials said.
For clean water crisis farmers are retting them in dirty water in some areas. Around 90 per cent fibers have been damaged. Farmers are waiting for rain to cut the rest, said district agriculture officer of Madaripur.
Tidal or clean water is appropriate for retting jute, not stark, dark and dirty water. Lack of fresh water is the reason for loss of color and softness.
Moreover, in some places there was no water at all while farmers were compelled to pay additional transport cost to take jute to a wetland nearby, he said.
But the production has remained high and farmers are getting handsome price for raw jute. Per maund of raw jute is selling at Tk3, 000-3,400 currently in Madaripur, he added.
This year jute was cultivated on around 37,000 hectares of land of the district. Farmers of the district were suffering and did not cut the plants.
Din Mohammad, a farmer from Kalkini of Madaripuir, said, “I cultivated jute on one acre of land. I had to wait a month to cut the jute as there was no space for retting. In the meantime, spots were observed in some plants and some had become black. Now the water is available as it has been raining for some days.”
He has confusion of getting a good price for his produce with black spots on plants. Farmers of Faridpur cultivated jute on 87,000 hectares of land, the highest in the country.
Farmers are retting jute three to four times in the same water due to lack of water. The jute retted in the first round is all right and jute retted in the following rounds seems much darker than the previous one, MD Hazrat Ali, a Deputy Director of DAE, also the district agriculture officer of Faridpur, till 02 August told The Business Post.
Most of the jute trees were damaged as they were retted in dark water. Farmers will get good price for the ones retted in clear water but less for the ones retted in dark water, he said.
Farmers cultivated more land this year as the price was high last year. He, however, said farmers were getting the same price this year and in some cases more prices compared to the previous year.
Last year the raw jute was sold at Tk2800-Tk3, 000 during the same period of time though the low-grade raw jute are selling at Tk2, 500- Tk2, 600 in different areas of the country now.
Jute millers say though it is harvesting time and raw jute has not been dried yet the price is higher than the previous time. If the government does not take proper initiatives, the price will go much higher after a few months.
Jute millers claimed that most of the jute plants had become over-matured and in most cases jute fibers have dried up due to the same reason.
Drought has prevented jute trees from growing to the fullest. On the other hand, the colour of fibers has been damaged due to over-maturity.
For this reason, farmers have huge low grade raw jutes, Md Abul Hossain, Chairman of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association told The Businesses Post.
“We are paying low prices to farmers for low-grade jute while they are getting high price for high-grade raw jute,” he said.
Jute goods exporters said grade and colour are most important to buyers. Bangladeshi Jute goods are popular in the world for their eco-friendly behavior, softness and charming colour.
But this year, most of the jute lost their natural colour due to drought and overheat.
European and other first world countries give priority to colour and quality, Esrat Jahan Chowdhury, Director of the Bangladesh Jute Goods Exporters Association, told The Business Post.
She said though raw jute quality is damaged, its price is high. It will again earn negative export earnings in the ongoing fiscal years.
Besides, ongoing diesel price hikes will badly impact raw jute price and export earnings, she added.
Tosha jute was cultivated on 6,77,766 hectares of land, local on 28, 873 hectares, Kenaf jute on 28, 726 hectare and Mesta jute on 18, 726 hectare of land this year.
