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Indian bid to elbow Dhaka out of jute market

By Nurul Kabir
Bangladesh is having a tough time selling its jute products in the international market as India is offering the same but at much lower prices official sources say.
According to sources in the Jute Ministry, Bangladesh lost a full deal with Egypt and partially failed to- win an export contract with Syria in the last weeks of November.
The officials in the Jute Ministry believed that Bangladesh had lost the business to India because, in both the cases, the latter offered its products to the buyers at
prices much lower than production costs.
Egypt, an old buyer of jute products from Bangladesh, in a ■bid to purchase 3000 bales of a particular jute product, floated an international tender in November where India offered the product at a rate of 13 dollars per 100 I. yards and secured the contract.
Accbrding to BJMC (Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation) officials, Bangladesh sold the same Jute products only few months ago at almost double the price India offered Egypt-
In the second Incident, Bangladesh was supposed to export more than 80,000 bales of Jute products (50 kg gunny bag) to Syria last November.
But Syria became reluctant to purchase the products from Bangladesh on receiving an Indian offer to get the same at a price significantly lower than that Bangladesh quoted.
Bangladesh, however, managed to secure half of the deal because of what the Jute Minister Brig (retd) Hannan Shah termed Syria good wishes for Bangladesh. But
Bangladesh virtually had to match the price offered by India, the Minister admitted.
Meanwhile, in a dramatic development, some Indian jute traders who came to Bangladesh a few day ago, are trying to procure from Bangladesh the jute products required to meet their contract with Syria.
A highly placed official in the Jute Ministry admitting the fact told this correspondent, on the condition of anonymity, that one Mr Wadwa, a London-based Indian businessman who also owns some jute mills in India, had approached the BJMC to buy the products. But the BJMC authorities refused to sell as they considered it detrimental to the national interest, the official added.
Explaining the Indian trader's approach, the Bangladesh official said that the people who had offered Syria supply of the products at a lower price virtually failed to collect the goods from the Indian market as the price offered was actually lower than the production cost
India is dumping its jute products for the time being with a view to elbowing out Bangladesh, the largest jute producing country, from the International market, the official explained.
He added that with the continued international resistance to the use of synthetics, jute had a tremendous potential in the International market.
Once Bangladesh was out of the international jute market, India would be dictating the
price in the world and thus recoup its present losses in this sector, the jute ministry official said.
Meanwhile, Mr Wadwa, disappointed at the public sector jute mills of the country, was trying to persuade the private sector mills to supply him the required jute goods, sources in the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) told The Dally Star.
According to the BJMC sources, some six jute mills owners had already been approached by the Indian national and some of them were now actively considering the proposed deal.
Sources In the BJMC further said that the Indian national was assuring the local mills owners that he would arrange to make up their possible losses by making them earn, profits through selling of jute products to the Bangladesh government under 'local purchase' claiming that he was in a position to influence a section in the Bangladesh government.