Problems of Jute Marketing in East Pakistan

Jute constitutes the largest item in the export market of Pakistan. At present Pakistan is facing a number of difficulties with respect to jute trade due mainly to the emergence of substitutes and powerful competitors in the world market. While these are the factors affecting long term demand for Pakistani jute, there also exist other important problems associated with jute. The most urgent among them is the marketing of jute. Jute marketing problems arise from economic and physical conditions that are primarily external to individual producers. But the problem of reducing the spread between producers’ and consumers’ prices is as important as that of reducing production costs. The world demand for raw jute is based on the fact that this fibre is the cheapest packing material in the world. To sell the huge amount of jute that the country produces, the supply price will have to be kept sufficiently low. To keep the supply price low both production costs and marketing costs will have to be kept low.