Govt plans to use hessian bags for packaging

Faced with a shortfall of 7.6 lakh bales of gunny bags for procurement of food grains by the government procuring agencies in 2009-10, the Centre is exploring the possibility of using high-density polyethylene bags, polypropylene bags and old gunny bags for paddy packaging.

As per the assessment of the Jute Commissioner, the jute industry can only supply 6.60 lakh bales by the end of September this year, as against the requirement of 14.2 lakh bales in this fiscal, thereby leaving a shortfall of 7.6 lakh bales.

The requirement of 14.2 lakh bales of gunny bags is about 40 per cent higher than the requirement of 10 lakh bales in 2008-09.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) may coordinate with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to examine the technical suitability of the use of hessian bags for paddy procurement.

The possibility of using hessian bags is being examined following the suggestion by the Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA), the representative body of the jute industry in the country.

Sanjay Kajaria, chairman, IJMA suggested that the jute industry can supply up to two lakh hessian bags before the start of the kharif marketing season for 2009-10, if orders are placed expeditiously.

The suggestion was made by Kajaria at a meeting of the Union food ministry held in New Delhi on June 25 this year to review the supply of packaging material for the 2009-10 kharif marketing season.

At the meeting, Bhupendra Singh, joint secretary, textiles department of the Union government suggested that the possibility of extending the supply schedule of gunny bags beyond September should be explored.

The jute mills across the country supply jute bags by September every year as the procurement operations in most of the states including Punjab and Haryana starts from October 1 every year.

Moreover, there is a further time lag of 25-30 days between the inspection of gunny bales by the directorate general of supply and food disposal in the jute mills and actual receipts by the government procurement centres. The meeting explored the possibility of import of gunny bales from countries like Bangladesh to tide over the shortfall.

There is a shortfall in the availability of raw jute in Bangladesh as most of the jute mills in that country had been closed because of a revival plan chalked out for the jute industry, informed an official of the State Trading Corporation of India. The import of gunny bales from countries like Bangladesh would further increase the domestic prices due to which the supplies to Government agencies would get further affected, said Kajaria.