The Hindu Business Line : Jute crop size pegged lower at 97 lakh bales

Packaging hopes
The crop for the current seas is lower than last season’s 100 lakh bales.
Carryover stocks from this season is projected at 24 lakh bales.

Ambar Singh Roy

Kolkata, March 27

The size of the 2007-08 jute crop has officially been pegged at 97 lakh bales (of 180 kg each). This follows a meeting of the Jute Advisory Board that was held here under the chairmanship of the Jute Commissioner, Mr Binod Kispotta.

The size of the crop during 2006-07 jute year (July-June) was pegged at 100 lakh bales. The stock carried forward to the current jute year 2007-08 was 23 lakh bales. Import of jute from Bangladesh in the current jute year was eight lakh bales. As such, the total raw jute available in the 2007-08 jute year was 128 lakh bales.

Consumption by mills

According to sources, raw jute consumption by the mills sector was around 68 lakh bales till end-February 2008. The sources said if raw jute consumption by jute mills till June 2008 continued to follow the same pattern as hitherto, raw jute consumption by the mills sector in the 2007-08 jute year would be around 95 lakh bales.

With another nine lakh bales being consumed by the domestic sector and other industries, the total consumption in the current jute year is estimated to be around 104 lakh bales. Thus, the carry forward stock to the 2008-09 jute year is expected to be around 24 lakh bales.

Mixed trend in prices

Meanwhile, the price movement of raw jute in Kolkata has witnessed a seesaw trend this jute year. The benchmark TD4 grade of raw jute was quoted at the Jute Balers’ Association here at Rs 1,130 per quintal in the second week of July 2007. It went up to Rs 1,170 per quintal on October 5, 2007, and further up to Rs 1,250 per quintal in December 2007.

Thereafter, the price of the TD4 grade of raw jute in the Kolkata market went down to Rs 1,170 at one point of time in January 2008. On February 15, 2008, the TD grade was quoted at Rs 1,180 per quintal. Currently, it is quoted at Rs 1,355 per quintal at the Jute Balers’ Association here.

Sources in the raw jute trade attributed the fall in the price of the golden fibre in January-February this year to “more-than-normal” imports from Bangladesh. They said that eight lakh bales of raw jute have been imported from Bangladesh in the current jute year. Normally, imports from Bangladesh are of the order of four lakh bales every year.

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