Jute Bags, the Rejuvenation of a promising but forgotten business in India

There was a time when the cultivation of Jute Plant was rampant in Ancient India. Its Eastern Region consisted of present West Bengal, Bangladesh and parts of Southern Assam. Jute is a cash crop known as “patsan” in Hindi. After 1947, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, Jute as a fiber started losing its popularity in the manufacturing sector as other fabrics like Nylon and Polythene were preferred more in the making of products like Bags and Cloths. Even the Cottage Industry Sector in India, which is considered as the Small Scale Industry started opting for other fabrics like Cotton over Jute. It was a time when Jute Business was facing its toughest time both in Urban as well as in Rural India.

[ Courtesy : thedailystar.net ]

Now time has changed for Jute Business in India. As far as Jute Business and Jute Crop Cultivation are concerned, India has become the Largest Producer of Jute in the World, followed by Bangladesh at the second position. Some of the Jute Mills which were shut down in East India, especially in the East Indian State of West Bengal during the 1980s and 90s have started manufacturing Jute Fiber again for industries involved in the business of Jute Products.  Many companies involved in manufacturing of Craft and Fashion Accessories have started using Jute as a fabric for producing their products.

[ Courtesy : dundee.ac.uk ]

Since the past ten years or so, the awareness towards using Environment Friendly materials while making many kinds of products has prompted manufacturing companies to use Eco-Friendly materials like Jute. Nowadays apart from bags, even cloths are being made of Jute. Apart from being Eco-Friendly, Jute is also a very economical fiber to use. Even consumers are now finding Jute Products very easy to buy as they are available at very reasonable prices. Now only time can tell that how much more will the popularity of Jute increase by the days passing through in the World, especially in India.