Development potential

The rate of growth of the market is reported by industry sources to have eased in recent years. But the market these sources were referring to is that in Europe and USA. What it did not take into account is the emergence of new markets in South America, Africa and Asia. These new markets, excluding China, India, Korea and Japan, today probably account for over 120,000 tons of geotextiles and without those exceptions, over 330,000 tons. Growth prospects in Asia are going to be an important future factor.

Therefore, the expectation is that current markets will continue to grow as well as new emerging markets that offer long term potential in addition to current markets. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to promote jute in these markets. Again, it applies to other end uses than geotextiles as well. Distribution of traditional jute products is poor to non existent.

Aside from current markets and emerging ones, there is also scope for new products in both these markets. There are good samples of new products that are being developed but the industry needs to increase product market scope that is specifically targeted at market needs. In other words, products must be developed with particular applications in mind.

Assuming that 20,000 tons of jute and over 40,000-50,000 tons of coir are being used in geotextiles, the market potential for jute is estimated at being more than double current use and possibly three times present consumption.

In fact, in all the areas where synthetics were able to take away most of the markets in the 1970s, there is potential for recovery if jute producers were interested. The problem is in supply. Potential market demand may exist for up to 100,000 tons of jute but there is no indication of it being forthcoming.

As for jute for geotextiles in particular, there is scope for use of existing products in road construction, embankments, golf courses and other landscaping. Further scope can be gained through product development which has been taking place in producing countries but is theoretical and not market led.

In the way of an illustration, stitched coir blankets gained popularity mainly because the Federal Government in Germany was persuaded that roof greening would increase insulation and lower energy consumption. It was manufactured using machinery from either of two German suppliers from Twistriggen, just outside Bremen. They saw a wider applicability for the material and production was quickly established in USA as well as in Germany and today has spread to India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Ghana.

The important factor was that production of stitched blankets took place in consuming countries. There was thus no distribution problem and good contact with buyers. Those producing the blankets generally also sell other natural materials such as wood shaving, rice straw and others.

The coir industry has benefited a great deal from efforts on their behalf by ITC, FAO and CFC. In particular, ITC undertook a series of projects to promote coir ending up in the CFC financed project that is the subject of a Technical Paper. We first identified potential exporters who were world market standard. Then we identified important end-users willing to evaluate samples, organised the dispatch of the samples and obtained reactions. The idea was to identify gaps in between what was being produced and what was demanded in order to undertake product development that would fill the gap. The markets studied were extensive and included Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Europe and USA. Coir producers acted on information, attended trade fairs and benefited from good organisation of marketing.