Dgs & D Jute Bag Buying Dips In 96-97

The DGS&D procured only 5.4 lakh bales of B Twill bags during 1996-97 compared to 8.35 lakh bales procured in 1995-96 resulting in a shortfall of more than 3 lakh bales. This was stated by Ashish C Doshi, president of Gunny Trades Association at its annual general meeting here yesterday.

According to the textile ministry, this is attributable to factors like drastic curtailment in the volume of procurement of jute bags for packing foodgrains by DGS&D, slowdown in purchase of jute bags by the sugar industry and erosion in the offtake by cement and fertiliser industries.

Combating a severe shortage of raw jute, a production volume of 14,33,000 tonnes was achieved in 1995-96. However, the volume of production slipped to 14,00,900 tonnes in 1996-97.

 

On the export front, the setback was mainly due to the loss of the CIS markets. The volume of export has declined by 8.3 per cent.

While there has been a significant increase in the volume of production of yarn, the volume of export declined considerably.

Doshi mentioned that the new mandatory packaging order stipulates 100 per cent use of jute bags for foodgrains and sugar and 50 per cent for urea whereas the cement sector has been totally exempted from the order.

While referring to the position of raw jute availability, Doshi observed that a carry over of 2.2 million bales from the previous year, along with a bumper crop in the offing, has depressed raw jute price in the market. He expects that with the price support operation launched by JCI and the bulk order released by DGS&D, the situation would improve in the coming days.

G M Singhvi, chairman, IJMA said that the association can further increase production by another 20 to 25 per cent by adding minor balancing equipment.