Availability of raw material namely wood pulp at reasonable prices remains a big issue. The government does not allow felling of trees from reserved forests for raw material purposes. As a result, the cost of wood in India is nearly three times that of the wood in Indonesia. Waste paper, a substitute raw material used in the manufacture of paper is also not available freely in the country. So like pulp a lot of waste paper is imported.
Bagasse is another option and a viable one at that.
However here too, supply is proving to be a problem due to diversion of excess bagasse for producing power by sugar mills. However, with the advent of change in the National Forest Policy in the year 1989, the said agreements, which were supposed to have remained valid till 2003, were abruptly terminated. As a result, there was no availability of forest-based raw material viz., bamboo from the government reserve forests since January 1989. Thereafter, on account of constant Research and Development efforts, the Company could successfully eliminate the use of Bamboo from its production furnish and started using wood viz., Eucalyptus, Casuarina, Subabul and Acacia in its place. We procure the raw material required from indigenous sources.