Jute is known as the Golden fiber of Bangladesh. It is a natural fiber comprised of silky and golden shine. It is one of the most cheapest and economical vegetable fibers after cotton, obtained from the skin or bast of plant’s stem. Recyclable, 100% biodegradable, and eco-friendly jute has low extensibility and high tensile strength. Jute is the versatile natural fiber widely used as a raw material in many textiles, nonwoven textile, packaging, construction, and agricultural applications.

Ancient period Jute
During the era of great Mughal emperor Akbar, poor villagers of India were used to wear jute clothes. Since ancient times, ropes and twines, used by Bengali Indians are made up of white jute for varied household applications. Also, Chinese papermakers have used all forms of plants like jute, hemp, cotton to make paper.

The time period from the 17th century
From the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century, the British empire authority was delegated by the British East India Company, the first jute trader. The raw jute was traded by this company. During the start of the 20th century, Margaret Donnelly I was a jute mill landowner in Dundee who had set up the first jute mill in India. The first consignment of Jute was exported by East India Company in the year 1793. In the country, Scotland, flax spinners were trying to learn whether jute can be mechanically processed. At the beginning of the year 1830, Dundee spinners have determined the spinning of Jute yarn by transfiguring their power-driven flax machinery. This leads to an increase in the export and production of raw jute from the Indian sub-continent which was the single supplier of jute.

The time period from the year 1855
The major jute growing areas were mainly in Bengal at the Kolkata side. When Mr. George Acland was buying jute spinning machinery from Dundee to India, the first power-driven weaving factory was established at Rishra, on the River Hooghly near Calcutta in the year 1855. By the year 1869, five mills were established with around 950 looms. The growth was so fast that, by the year 1910, 38 companies were operating around 30,685 looms, rendering more than a billion yards of cloth and over 450 million bags. Till the middle of the year 1880, the jute industry has acquired almost the whole of Dundee and Calcutta. Later in the 19th century, the manufacturing of jute has started in other countries also like France, America, Italy, Austria, Russia, Belgium, and Germany.

The time period from 19th century till 1947
Outstanding expansion in the jute industry has been noticed in the 19th century. Throughout the year 1939, around 68,377 looms were established on the River Hooghly near Calcutta. The prime commodities woven by jute are coarse bagging materials, produced by finer fabrics also known as hessian or burlap. The handlooms established in Calcutta, give this place world-class leadership in burlap and other bagging materials.

Adamjee Jute Mills Located in Narayanganj

The time period after the year 1947
After getting Independence, most of the Jute barons had started to quit India, leaving the set up of jute mills. Most of them were taking by Marwaris businessmen. During the year 1947, after the partitioning, East Pakistan had the finest stock of jute. The tension had already begun between India and Pakistan, now Pakistani people felt the need for the jute industry. From then onwards, different groups of Pakistani families have joined the jute business by establishing many mills in Narayanganj. The Pakistani were in general, Bawanis, Adamjees, Ispahanis and Dauds. In the year 1971, the liberation of Bangladesh took place from Pakistan, thus most of the jute mills were taken over by the Bangladesh government. Later, the government had built BJMC (Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation) to control and handle the jute mills of Bangladesh.

Jute Industry played an important role in the economic development of Bengal. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Bengal could boast of only one manufacturing industry – jute. It employed about half of the total industrial workforce of Bengal. In 1900-1, the export value of jute manufactures accounted for nearly a third of the entire export trade of Bengal.

During most of its history, three-quarters of the laborers in jute factories were non-Bengalis. Bengalis generally occupied only the intermediate position in the industry. The raw jute for the industry used to come from Eastern Bengal.

Before the establishment of the first jute mill in 1855, handloom weavers used jute fiber to make twines, ropes, coarse fabrics for the poor, and also for fishing and mooring vessels.

The British also found out means to soften the hard and brittle nature of jute fiber by adding oil and water. This made the fiber more pliable and easily separable and resulted in the production of a usable thread.

Several historical events were responsible for the growth of the jute industry. In 1838, the Dutch government specified bags made of jute instead of flax for carrying coffee from the East Indies. However, the Crimean War of 1854-56 led to the stoppage of supply of flax from Russia and forced Dundee, the famous jute manufacturing center of the UK, to look for substitutes.

The American Civil War (1861-65), on the other hand, gave further impetus to the jute trade, as supplies of American cotton were much restricted. Since then, the industry did not return to flax or cotton.

This led to a rapid increase in the demand for jute. The Bengali peasants responded quickly to meet the world demand by increasing the area under jute cultivation.

Attracted by the easy availability of power, George Auckland, an Englishman established the first jute mill. But he could not make reasonable profits and left the business. In 1859, the Borneo Company founded the second mill with spinning and weaving facilities. Unlike the Auckland mill, it started prospering after its establishment. Within five years it doubled its plant size.

Between 1868 and 1873, these mills made large profits. Five new companies started in 1874 and 8 more in 1875. Thus, Bengal experienced a real boom in the jute industry towards the end of the nineteenth century.

With the establishment of jute mills, Bengal became a major exporter of sacking bags. Calcutta appeared to be a strong competitor of Dundee and successfully penetrated Dundee’s hessian market in many parts of the world, including America, primarily because Calcutta had the cost advantage in producing jute goods.

Secondly, it situation was close to the jute growing districts of Eastern Bengal and Assam. Thirdly, it had cheap labor. Fourthly, the mills ran for 15 to 16 hours, and sometimes even for 22 hours daily. This led to a clear advantage of Calcutta manufacturers in monetary terms.

Moreover, they could offer a finer quality of jute. In sixty years between 1880 and 1940, the number of mills increased by 5 times, that of looms by about 14 times, of spindles by 19 times, and of persons employed by 11 times (see Table). The growth of the industry was significant during the 20 years between 1900 and 1920.

First of all the ratio of land under jute cultivation to total cropped land in these districts in 1872 was 14%, 11%, 9%, 7%, 6%, and 5% respectively. Subsequently, jute cultivation spread to other districts. In 1914, leading districts in terms of the above ratio were Rangpur (28 %,) Bogra (25%), Tipperary (Comilla, 24%), Pabna (21%), Dhaka (18%), Faridpur (16%), Hughli (West Bengal, 13%), Rajshahi (11%), Jessore (10%), Nadia (10%), and Dinajpur (7%).

After the end of the First World War in 1918, the world demand for raw jute decreased. This harmed the area under jute cultivation. The situation worsened for jute cultivation during the Great Depression of 1929-33. The prices sank so low that jute growing became unprofitable. As a result, peasants greatly reduced their area under jute cultivation. By 1939, economic recovery took place. The breaking out of the Second World War caused an increase in the demand for jute and between 1939 and 1945; peasants put more areas under jute cultivation.

Under its location in East Pakistan, the jute industry in the public sector became the property of Bangladesh after independence in 1971. Pakistani mill owners (about 68% of the total loom strength) left the country, leaving the industry in disarray. Abandoned jute mills were subject to heavy looting. The new government of Bangladesh had to take up the responsibility of rebuilding the industry.

At one stage the number of jute mills under the jurisdiction of BJMC went up to 78. BJMC had to revive the industry from a ruined position. Immediately after liberation, it became very difficult to solve the problem of financial hardship of the jute industry because financial institutions were not working well. The short supply of spares, labor unrest, wastage in production, etc. shook the industry severely.

As a result jute industry of Bangladesh, the first two years after liberation was the period of reorganization. The government offered a cash subsidy to the industry, which amounted to Tk 200 million annually. Thanks to this policy and periodic devaluation of the currency, Bangladesh could retain its position as a prime exporter of jute goods in the dollar areas of export.

By December 1979, BJMC had 77 jute mills, two carpet backing mills, and two spare parts producing units. In June 1981, BJMC had 74 mills under its administration. These mills had about 165,000 workers and 27,000 managerial and office staff.

Denationalization of jute mills started in July 1982. The valuation process and settlement of other organizational matters relating to handing over of the mills took a long time. Among the jute mills owned by BJMC, 46 had satisfactory financial performance in 1982-83, when their profit before contribution to the national exchequer was about Tk 240 million.

The same mills incurred total losses of about Tk 430 million in the previous year. Jute mills incurred losses regularly over years and external donor agencies pressed hard for denationalization. In 1999, BJMC had 33 mills. The World Bank continued to work closely with the government to restructure the jute sector, especially through denationalization, merger, dissolution, closure, and new units.

Jute, as a renewable natural fiber, is also bio-degradable and environmentally friendly, it is one of the few crops, which is growing in the monsoon season, and it is rotating with rice to restore the soil fertility and structure. The leaves of jute plants enrich the fertility of the soil for sustained agriculture and have good nutrition value as vegetables. The use of jute sticks as fuel and fencing material as substitutes for wood prevents deforestation. Therefore, with the increased global concern for the environment, the prospects for jute remain high.

Lest we forget, the jute industry was the lifeblood of our economy for several decades and continues to be one of the mainstays of our rural economy even today. About 15 million farmers are involving in growing this cash crop and several million more of our population, perhaps an equal number, are involving with its processing, transportation, conversion, etc. To understand the current state of affairs in the industry, one must look into the background of the jute industry and the events that took place over the last several decades.

1.3 Bangladesh Jute at a Glance

Acronyms used

• BJSA Bangladesh Jute Spinners Association (Private Sector)
  BJMA Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (Private Sector)
  BJMC Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (Public Sector)
  CBC  Carpet Backing Cloth.