Jute mills in Bangladesh are left with unsold stock, hampering wage payments. They produce four types of products – sack, hessian, carper backing cloth and yarn. The country had a target of keeping 3,650 handlooms operative in the jute mills in the current fiscal year. But only 2,099 handlooms are operating, which is only 57 per cent of the target. As a result, 47 per cent of mill workers are unemployed.

The target of buying raw jute for the year 2018-2019 was fixed at 7.48 lakh quintals. But only 81610 quintals have been bought in the last four months, which is just 11 per cent of the target.

Jute mill authorities are not being able to buy jute at lower prices. Later, they have to purchase it at higher prices, which will boost the production cost. The authorities concerned have been urged to allocate funds for purchasing raw jute this season and take the initiative for selling the produced products.

Mill production has declined due to lack of funds. The production target is 16.34 metric tons, while only seven metric tons to ten metric tons have been produced. Among the nine state-owned jute mills, seven are located in Khulna and the rest two in Jessore area.