The Hindu : Business : Pakistan keen to export jute goods to India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 10, 2006

Business

Business

Pakistan keen to export jute goods to India

Special Correspondent

Alternative use for jute has emerged

KOLKATA: The Pakistan jute industry is keen to enter the Indian market, Humayun Mazhar, the chief executive officer of Crescent Jute Products Ltd, Lahore, said. He was here along with some of the other jute mill owners in Pakistan to attend a meeting of the International Jute Study Group (ISJG), a body under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

He said Pakistan officials had begun exploratory talks with their counterparts in India. The products on offer were traditional ones such as Hessian, sacking, twines and carpet backing cloth. "After all the Indian grain bowl Punjab, is closer to Pakistan than Kolkata," Mr. Mazhar said. He said it would have to be found out whether jute goods' import was on India's negative list.

Mr. Mazhar said Pakistan's jute goods exports were about Rs. 100 crore and it had 12 mills with an output of 12,000 tonnes. This is a minuscule proportion of the Indian output, he said, adding that the entire raw material was imported from Bangladesh. Meanwhile, an alternative use for jute has emerged with many countries showing keenness to preserve their forests by using jute pulp instead of wood pulp for making paper.

At least two Japanese companies had shown keenness to substitute wood pulp with jute pulp for paper production.

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