A United Nations Conference began today in Geneva with the objective of negotiating a successor agreement to the International Agreement on Jute and Jute Products, 1989, due to expire on 11 April (see TAD/INF/2840).
In his opening address, the Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mr. Carlos Fortin, noted that with the introduction of the technology of bulk handling and the advent of synthetics, jute has suffered a decline as a packaging material, traditionally one of its main end uses. On the other hand, against the background of growing population in the producing countries, jute cultivation has become less remunerative to the farmers, when compared to the income derived from food crops grown in the same season. Jute is grown by around 11 million small farmers in Asian countries and provides employment to hundreds of thousands of other people in the processing, manufacturing, trading, and transportation of jute and jute goods. Although only one third of the global production of jute enters international trade, jute nevertheless continues to be the most important traded fiber crop after cotton, and earns an appreciable amount of foreign exchange for the major exporting countries. Mr. Fortin underlined the responsibility of the international community in ensuring that short term economic considerations, which are sometimes detrimental to longer term environmental interests, do not stand in the way of allowing jute to fulfill its true potential as an environment friendly product.
The Executive Director of the International Jute Organization, Mr. Henri Jason, called on the participants to revitalize the IJO, which has been acting as a catalyst in developing jute-based new products, processes and technologies. Unlike other international commodity bodies, the thrust of IJO’s activities is research and development. At a time of globalization and liberalization of markets, increased international cooperation is required to take care of the social, human and environmental dimensions of development.
Mr. Jason warned the Conference that continued uncertainty about the future of the IJO put at great risk potential products and investments. Many of the IJO’s findings are now ripe for commercial exploitation. Over the past year, thirteen project proposals for the commercialization of jute based technologies have been short listed with a total investment value of US$20 million, of which 40 per cent of financing has already been secured by Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and the European Commission’s Compex Fund. Lately, the IJO has been considering investment proposals from a US-based entrepreneur who is interested in investing several hundred million dollars for the construction of jute based construction materials in Bangladesh, India and China. Two other major projects are about to be launched, for which full funding has already been secured. The first relates to the application of biotechnology for the production of paper pulp from green jute, worth US$1.5 million, financed jointly by the Common Fund for Commodities, the European Commission/Bangladesh Compex Fund, and the Government of France. The second project on entrepreneurship development, at an estimated cost of US$3 million, is the highest value project ever to be undertaken by the IJO and promises to have a major impact in the generation of rural employment and poverty alleviation.
The IJO is the only international commodity body with its headquarters in a Least Developed Country (Dhaka, Bangladesh).
