The geosynthetic industry is facing a crisis due to the far higher feedstock prices as well as low profitability for the plants in the USA and Europe. In any case, there is a strong and growing preference on the part of many to use natural bio degradable and sustainable materials. However, distribution of coir is poor when compared to synthetics and that of jute is very bad indeed.

Jute has been marketed and promoted very poorly to the geotextile industry and there has been relatively little product development in the past. There are understandable reasons for this but it is also clear that there is very considerable scope for increasing market penetration and sales for jute provided the jute industry is interested and willing to do so.

Reasons for poor jute performance

Geotextiles represent a substantial end use application area of the erosion control market. Over 2 million square metres (one million tons valued at $2.25 billion retail) are being used. It is also clear that although the market developed well in industrialised countries of North America, Europe, Far East and Australasia, the market has by no means reached saturation and only stands in the foothills of the potential global development.

The share of natural fibres in the geotextile market has increased dramatically due to considerations of sustainability and biodegradability as much as appreciation of the qualities and applicability of natural fibres for control of soil erosion and landscaping. But within this increased share for natural fibres jute has gained less than proportionately.

The principal reasons for this include:

1. The existence of a lucrative protected and growing Indian market,
2. Preferential treatment accorded to rice in policy in Bangladesh,
3. Virtual collapse of distribution,
4. Lack of market information,
5. Virtually no market development,
6. Very little product development,
7. No promotion after the 1970s.

The main reason is that those who could have acted to market and promote sales had not enough incentive while those who wanted to do so probably did not have the information, or the funds to do so.

The lack of marketing effort is not confined to geotextiles. There appears to be a more general weakness and the 7 points above would apply to most export jute application areas. They sum up the situation for jute.

At the beginning, the growth of domestic usage of jute had been welcomed as a way of minimising the affect of loss of export markets. But today, India is by far the biggest consumer and the local market is so lucrative that there is little incentive to put in the marketing effort to export. In India, critics have argued that it is the protection afforded by regulations on packaging but this would not explain why the same is true of Pakistan. In the case of the latter, there is no protection or subsidy but market demand is sufficient to afford a lucrative sanctuary. Bangladeshi consumption is rising and china, which had phased jute out is importing increasing amounts.

In contrast, with coir we have had:

1. Substantial increased production,
2. Export based development,
3. Distribution initiatives by producers,
4. ITC market studies and market development,
5. Product innovation,
6. Promotion by machinery manufacturers,
7. Local processing in consuming markets.