Middlemen eat up lion's share of profit from raw jute

17 June 2010, 18:00 PM

Unb, Sangsad Bhaban

Jute and Textile Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui said in Parliament yesterday that the middlemen eat up the lion's share of profit from jute produced with toil by the farmers. Replying to a written question of Nazim Uddin Ahmed (BNP-Laxmipur), he said the government never fixed the price for jute. “The butter and cake always go to the middlemen whatever the price in domestic and international market, and the last season was no different,” Latif Siddiqui said. The farmers get an average of Tk 900-Tk 1500 per maund for their jute according to quality, he added. The jute minister said due to the high demand in the international market and raw jute already in the hands of middlemen, there was turbulence in the jute market last season. “Raw jute traded at a rate of Tk 2800.” He also said this kind of price is never expected at any cost, as the farmers never benefit from such high price. Responding to another written question from the same lawmaker, Latif Siddiqui said Bangladesh exported 17.5 lakh bales and 15.02 lakh bales of jute respectively in fiscal 2008-09 and 2009-10 (till May). He said China, India and Pakistan were the main importers of Bangladeshi raw jute. Bangladesh also exported jute to Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Spain, Germany, the USA, Ivory Coast, Belgium, Indonesia, Djibouti, Malaysia, El Salvador, Italy, Taiwan, the UK, Thailand, Iran, Brazil, the Philippines, Tunisia and Nepal.