Prospects of jute
Photo: Focus Bangla
“The golden fibre” by Abed Choudhury in Point Counterpoint page of your March 23 edition drew my attention. Like him I do believe that there are new opportunities for jute goods, especially, in recent months, when we are watching the new “green movement” by the west. There is a need for reusable and recyclable grocery bags, shopping bags that are environment friendly and biodegradable. However, I disagree with Mr. Abed on the argument that the costly genome sequencing of jute is the answer. I believe the answer lies somewhere between the initiative taken by dynamic entrepreneurs and branding, marketing of such products. I will give you one example of my personal experience to put this into context. Last week in one of my colleagues' rooms I saw a stack of black garment reusable shopping bags. She asked me to get one and keep track of how many times I use that. Then I should write down the usage number to a tracking sheet that my manager would place in a common area. This goes through the hierarchy of management at Intel Corporation in Portland Oregon where I work. Every manager asked for direct reports to encourage the adaptation of reusable grocery bags in their daily life. There is a movement going on all over the USA to cut down polythyne shopping bags or grocery bags to improve the quality of environment. In Bangladesh we did this very successfully several years ago. Now this black grocery shopping bag that was handed over to me for reuse, being sold by Fred Meyer, is 100% recyclable and reusable. After looking at the tag of the bag, I found out that it was outsourced to China by a California company called “Earthwise” based in Commerce California, USA. This bag is hand washable (not machine washable which is uncommon in the USA) and was made of 100% non-woven polypropylene. It is not machine washable and it is not natural fibre material. However, it is being marketed and corporations are buying this as a statement to show their commitment to the environment. Now consider this, somebody in Bangladesh use 100% natural fibre jute to produce a grocery bag that is machine washable and shows a cool statement of being environmentally savvy. This product is obviously a better one as it is biodegradable, recyclable, reusable and machine washable. This will be a good thing to every consumer. Then the entrepreneur puts out this product information in many media outlets that he gets for free, say Internet, a video demo in Youtube.com and try to get as much attention as he can including all the jute agencies as the backer of the product. The possibilities are boundless. I am sure Dr Yunus and Dr Atiq Rahman will come forward for such a product of national pride. I hope Abed Chaudhury will also agree with me that with creative products and proper marketing we can get good returns from the golden fibre. This will help solve a global environmental problem.
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