BJMC looking for financial assistance of Tk5.0 bn to procure raw jute

Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) is going through an acute financial crisis mainly due to decline in exports of jute goods is seeking for financial assistance from the government of TK5.0 billion to procure raw jute urgently to feed its mills, as the prime time of cash crop has now set in.

Major-General Humayun Khaled, Chairman of the BJMC, sent Monday a letter to Mahbub Ahmed, senior secretary of the ministry of finance (MoF), seeking the fund support.

The mills under the BJMC manufacture different types of packaging fabrics, hessian, sacking, carpet backing, mats and bags which are exported to different countries across the globe. But the export of such items has taken a downturn, due to significant drop in the use of jute goods across the world due to substitutes available nowadays.

Products worth Tk 7.50 billion are stored in different jute mills across the country. The jute items have long remained stockpiled due to the decline in export. Besides, millers are facing hard times due to the fund constraint. So, jute- procurement activities of the mills have got deadlocked.

During the jute-procurement season, both state-owned and private mills usually face financial constraints. Then the government offers financial assistance to the BJMC to help them out every year.

On the other hand, the jute mills were incurring heavy losses. The mills’ performance was not satisfactory.

The corporation has set a target to procure 2.26 million bales (26.14 lakh quintals) of raw jute for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15. The state entity has to procure jute worth Tk 10.0 billion all the year round at market prices, according to the BJMC data.

BJMC buys raw jute for the mills through 182 purchase centres located in the jute- growing areas of the country, ensuring fair price to the farmers.

Now the organisation is operating 26 mills (including 3 non-jute industries). There are 7 mills in Dhaka zone, 10 in Chittagong and 9 in Khulna zone. BJMC has two zonal offices for supervising and coordinating the activities of regional mills.

The jute-procurement season is underway. It is profitable if the BJMC procures jute at this time, sources concerned have said.

Its mills manufacture mainly Hessian cloth, different types of Hessian bags, sacking cloth, different types of sacking bags, yarn, geo-jute, blanket, jute canvas and carpet backing cloth (CBC) etc from jute, the longest natural fibre in the world.