PANIPAT, June 21: The share of diversified jute products (DJP) exports is set to increase over 10 per cent of the total jute goods.The annual growth rate of all jute goods exports is 66.83 per cent.

Thanks to an UNDP sponsored programme on jute value addition and diversification which has turned a `sunset' jute industry into a thriving export-oriented one, the industry is projected to earn Rs 1,000 crore foreign exchange annually by the turn of the century. The Rs 575-million Indian Jute Programme, launched in 1992 with an UNDP input of $23 million, has helped the industry spread to non-traditional jute states of Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala where jute blended carpet manufacturing has caught on, earning foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 100 crore annually.With the mushrooming jute industries in Panipat, the city has not only become an export centre, but has also become a centre for research and training, said R C D Kaushik, director Technological Institute of Textiles and Sciences and project coordinator, J K Sharma. It is no longer jute blended carpets, the other diversified items, according to the UNDP jute programme manager, Ajay Prasad, included jute blended suitings, apparel, jute-based paper, laminated sheets, jute boards for furniture and other carpentry work. Prasad told visiting newsmen from Delhi that Indian Railways had started using jute laminated sheets as roofing for passenger coaches instead of fibre glass, and asbestos which is believed to be carcinogenic.

The new applications, he said, have helped in the grand revival of the jute industry taking annual production to over 100 lakh bales. A new application that has been evolved is its use in automobile industry. India, though the world's largest producer of jute, was losing ground in jute hessians and raw jute exports used in packaging. This, Prasad said, was because of chemical treatment of hessians with a low grade crude derivative was giving it some odour. With sustained research in the last two years, India has developed a rice bran-based oil for jute treatment which was not only eco friendly, but also odourless.

He said that as a result of this development, India was able to step up the traditional jute hessians and raw jute export to Rs 630 crore in 1996-97. Prasad explained that jute R&D was not confined merely to laboratories and under this programme as many as 15 jute enterprises were being directly assisted for commercial production of the jute diversified products. As many as 80 NGOs in eight states were involved in the production of value-added jute handicrafts at the cottage-level employing rural women. The average annual export growth of floor coverings, hand and shopping bags, wall hangings, gift articles and decorative fabrics was 170 per cent in the last four years. A paper mill has been set up in West Bengal to manufacture jute paper widely used as cigarette and photocopier paper and some fancy applications like visiting cards. The company consumed as much 50,000 tonnes of jute annually in the manufacture of jute paper.

With this commercial production, jute has become a good substitute for wood in paper making and in the coming years it would also help in conserving valuable forests in the country.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.