Our Bureau

Kolkata , Oct.6

FOLLOWING a sharp rise in raw jute prices during the last one month, there has been speculation on the total production and its quality.

Mr K.K. Dhandhania, President of the Jute Brokers Association, in a press statement, sought to clarify that the availability of the golden fibre was more than enough but added that the quality was not as good as expected.

"Though in terms of quantity the crop exceeded expectations, the quality will be inferior to that in the previous years," he stated.

According to him, inadequate rainfall in the districts of Murshidabad, Nadia and Burdwan was responsible for this. Because of this, around 35 per cent of the crop has still not been harvested.

"The crop has been outstanding in Assam, the semi-northern belts and has been at par with the previous years in some regions of northern West Bengal and Bihar. The south Bengal crop has improved in quantity, but it has lost quality," he added.

He said this year's raw jute production was likely to be around 100 lakh bales (of 180 kg each). Assam, Tripura and northern West Bengal were likely to produce 27 lakh bales.

The southern part of West Bengal, which produces the bulk of the golden fibre, may produce 45 lakh bales. In Bihar, the production would be nine lakh bales. The districts of West Dinajpur and Malda were likely to produce 14 lakh bales.

The crop in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa was likely to be 3.5 lakh bales and 1.5 lakh bales, respectively.

According to Mr Dhandhania, apart from production of 100 lakh bales of raw jute, there was a carry-forward of 11 lakh bales from the previous year. Imports were likely to be seven lakh bales.

Taking all these factors into consideration, he pegged total raw jute availability at 118 lakh bales and added that industrial consumption was approximately 90 lakh bales. This apart, seven lakh bales were consumed in the informal sectors.

"So, the total consumption of raw jute in the current jute year, July-June 2005-06, will be around 97 lakh bales. This means there is a possibility of a carry-forward of 21 lakh bales for the next year. In such a scenario, the present raw jute price of Rs 1,400 a quintal is extremely speculative," he said.

He felt that industrial jute goods production could fall by three lakh bales in the current year because of poor off-take of jute yarn and hessian in the global market. This, he said, would reduce demand for the golden fibre in the second half of the jute year.

The jute mill owners had also threatened to reduce working shifts to protest against the raw jute pricing of the Jute Corporation of India Ltd (JCI). Subsequently, a solution had been worked out.

Till now, JCI had procured approximately two lakh quintals of raw jute that was being off-loaded to mills according to their requirements.

At present, he said, JCI was hardly purchasing any raw jute.

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