Drastic fall in jute prices comes as a bane of farmers

Staff Reporter :
A drastic fall in raw jute prices in the current harvesting season has come as a bane of the jute growers across the country.

Farmers fear huge losses this year as the price of raw jute roughly decreased roughly by 26 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,700 per maund (37 kilogrammes) compared to Tk 2,600 to Tk 3,200 for the same quantity last year.

The sharp decline in prices has meant that farmers are unable to recover their production costs, leading to widespread despair in the agricultural sector.

Expressing his despair, a jute grower from Parnanduli village under Magura sadar upazila of the district, Shoriful Islam, said, “I sold two maunds of jute at a local market for Tk 2,500 per maund two days ago.

This is the highest price in the market now. But last year, I got as much as Tk 3,200 per maund.”

Meanwhile, the production cost of jute has soared this year due to fertilizer price hike, weather conditions such as prolonged drought and untimely rains.

The reduced rainfall has necessitated additional expenses for rotting jute, further escalating the cost of cultivation.

Collecting data about the current price it is informed that the raw jute is fetching farmers at best Tk 2,700 per maund (around 37 kilogrammes) at local haats (market) of Faridpur, Pabna and some northwestern districts.

The current prices of the same quality of raw jute are nearly 26 percent lower than the Tk 3,200 or so they were getting in the same period a year ago.

However, millers blamed the price fall on the declining exports of jute and jute goods as the international demand for raw jute has waned significantly.

Data from Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) showed that the export of jute and jute goods has reduced by 19 percent to $912 million in FY 2022-23 compared to FY 2021-22.It was the second consecutive year for exports to have reduced.

In the month of current fiscal year export of raw jute and jute goods increased slightly by 2.75 percent and again in August suffered a decline. That decline in export demand has a domino effect on local jute prices.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agricultural Extension data showed that it has been targeted to produce 89.87 lakh bales of jute in the current financial year of 2023-24 using 7.64 lakh hectares of land across the country.

Addressing the reason of drastic price fall of raw jute, Millers also said mills still has a good quantity of last year’s jute as it did not get sufficient orders from buyers as per its expectations. As a result, they are unable to stock raw jute now.

Besides, stockiest who were active in the raw jute market in the last two years, are not buying this year as they have old stocks.

Apart from these, the local jute market may face further stress as the Indian government plans to impose countervailing duty (CVD) on their shipment of jute and jute goods, at a time when Jute and jute goods exporters are already facing an anti-dumping duty (ADD) in the market.

Secretary-General of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA), Abdul Barik Khan, said, “Indian companies have stopped buying our raw jute, which has adversely impacted the local market.”

Mohammed Mahbubur Rahman Patwari, a director of Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association said “We have lost a significant portion of the market for this.

There were blows on us for war in different parts of the world.

Of late China, which was a good market for us, is also suffering from an economic slowdown.”