Rainfall scarcity in southern Bengal delays provide of uncooked jute to mills
The shortage of rain within the jute-producing districts within the southern a part of West Bengal has slowed down the provision of golden fibre to mills amid bumper crop estimates, an official stated on Sunday.
Though mills are able to inventory uncooked jute for manufacturing for the 2022-23 season, the retting technique of the vegetation is being held again as a consequence of an absence of rainfall within the southern districts of the state, accounting for the lion’s share of complete jute cultivation.
Retting is a microbial course of by which the fibre from the woody core (stick) is loosened. After harvesting and defoliation, bundles of jute stems are positioned in retting tanks and weighed down beneath water for 8-10 days to finish the method.
“Supply of raw jute to the market has not yet begun steadily. It is likely to be delayed till at least the third and fourth week of July due to insufficient rainfall in South Bengal which is delaying retting,” Jute Balers’ Association Secretary A Okay Palit instructed PTI.
However, the northern a part of West Bengal has acquired good rainfall and uncooked jute is anticipated to reach from there quickly, he stated.
“The shortfall in South Bengal has led to increase in raw jute price by around Rs 200-300 per quintal to around Rs 6500, after slipping to a low of Rs 6150 recently on the expectation of bumper crop,” he stated.
According to the Met division, Murshidabad has a rain shortfall of 67 per cent, Nadia 61 per cent, North 24 Parganas 52 per cent and Hooghly 33 per cent between June 1 and July 10.
These are the important thing jute rising districts within the southern a part of the state.
However, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts in northern West Bengal acquired extra rainfall of 45 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
An professional committee constituted with representatives of the federal government, mills and different stakeholders has projected uncooked jute provide for 2022-23 (starting July 1) to be 18 per cent greater than that in 2021-22 to 95 lakh bales.
“The quality of fibre will hamper if sufficient rainfall does not take place in the next 7-15 days,” a farmer in Murshidabad district stated.
However, each mills and balers count on that jute provide for the present season shall be higher than that of final yr which witnessed an unprecedented leap within the uncooked materials value for the mills disrupting manufacturing of jute luggage meant for meals grain packaging.
The consumption of the mills is estimated at 70 lakh bales within the present season.
Jute business in Bengal entails over 30 lakh jute farmers and a pair of.5 lakh mills employees, in line with estimates by commerce unions.
