CALCUTTA: Representatives of top cocoa and coffee nations will gather in Calcutta on Monday (today) to discuss greater and safer use of jute bags in packaging. The two-day seminar, being organised by the International Jute Organisation (IJO), will be attended by trade bodies and corporates from consuming nations in the European Union and producers such as Ghana and the Cameroons, for direct talks with the jute industry.The seminar will discuss the promotion of hydrocarbon-free jute bags, and is part of IJO's bid to help jute producers tackle competition from synthetics. The talks will also focus on "greener" versions of jute bags--those made without the help of petroleum-based batching oils.
The IJO feels jute bags have good prospects in the food industry, especially in the west, with consumers becoming more health conscious. Cocoa and coffee producers are looking for alternatives to synthetic bags, and jute is the ideal green material. However, jute bags can have a major flaw from the green point pointof view. Most manufacturers use a petroleum-based "jute batching oil (JBO)" to soften the coarse raw jute before it is combed, cut and made into yarn.
To replace this JBO, the Indian Jute Industries Research Association, the research and development wing of the Indian Jute Mills Association, has developed a vegetable oil.
This vegetable oil is the non-edible portion of rice bran oil. It is easily available and is not much costlier than the petroleum-based JBO. A number of far-sighted mills have begun producing the hydrocarbon-free jute bags, and they have found a ready market.
But, right. There's another hitch. The cocoa and coffee producers aren't happy as yet. They have pointed out that the lubricant used in the machinery of jute mills is of petroleum origin and want this also replaced.
IJIRA sources said the organisation is yet to make much progress on this, but are confident of working out something.
"The cocoa and coffee producers want a replacement for the petroleum-based lubricants also. Itis not too tough to find a green lubricant and we have already started working on it," sources said.
Among the teams at Monday's seminar will be a big one from the International Office of Cocoa, Chocolate & Sugar Confectioners, the apex body in the European Union.
There will also be teams from the French Association of Cocoa Trade, the National Office of Cocoa and Coffee from Cameroon, the Netherlands Cocoa Association and the Ghana Cocoa Board. Among corporates there will be a major representation from Swiss foods giant Nestle.
IJO's aim is to bring together jute and cocoa producers across the table, where the buyers will place their specific needs before the jute goods producers. This is a major step taken by IJO to create a new packaging market for the jute industry at a time when it is losing to the synthetic bags industry .
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
