The country needs to diversify its jute products and adopt a strong marketing policy in order to revive the jute sector now that the world is increasingly leaning to biodegradable products, experts said.

They recommended gradual write-off of debts long choking the mills under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) and called for placing the BJMC mills under private management to make them profitable.

The experts said forming a jute board would help.

Diversified jute products like agrotextile and geotextile have a huge potential for Bangladesh. India and many European countries have already started using such products.

"Diversified products add value from 30 to 300 percent. Research and new markets are needed to tap the potential," said Dr ABM Abdullah, executive director at the Jute Diversification Promotion Centre (JDPC).

He however said at present diversified products do not consume even five percent of the total jute produced.

"In Bangladesh we are just bleaching and dying the traditional products, not developing new items for new applications…we need to develop new products and create markets for them."

About 40 percent of the jute grown in the country is exported raw, which is not profitable at all. Existing mills could use all raw jute and earn much more foreign currency if run efficiently.

Major thrust areas for value-added diversified jute products include jute handlooms and handicrafts, non-woven and industrial applications, jute rigid packaging, decorative products and jute geotextile.

"The intention to move towards diversified products made wholly or partially from jute fibres has important consequences for the industry," Sudripta Roy, Secretary General at the International Jute Study Group (IJSG), said.

The real future of jute, however, lies in technical textiles, be it geotextile or agrotextile, he said, adding: "One area for product development attracting attention is the use of jute fibre to reinforce plastic mouldings…small quantities of more or less processed jute fibres are now being used in these applications."

The potential seems to be considerable and in ten years' time these applications could provide a market between one lakh to two lakh tonnes of jute fibre, he added.

"The potential for jute is enormous for its versatile use and biodegradability. The question is how the country is awakening to it?" said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, a research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said.

Terming inefficient management in the public sector a major problem, he said, "I've found that some private mills with half the machinery produce twice as much the public sector."

"The government should consider running the BJMC mills through private management. The government will own the mills, but the management will be private," he said.

The BJMC mills are also burdened with redundant workers, said Golam Moazzem, who recently conducted a study on the jute sector that recommended formation of a jute board to look after the industry.

Machinery-repair costs at BJMC mills are way higher than at the private-sector mills, he said.

His study recommended providing the jute mills with cash incentives equivalent to 15 percent of their export earnings, as part of writing off the huge debts.

The incentive now stands at 7.5 percent.