page_title: Jute Industry in Bangladesh
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Jute Industry in Bangladesh / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Jute Cultivation and Processing Bangladesh
context_page_description: Jute Industry in Bangladesh is an industry that is historically and culturally important that once was the biggest industry in the region but has declined since then. Jute was historically a major export item of Bangladesh but has declined since the 1970s. Exports have fallen as other countries grew jute and alternate products like plastic and hemp found more widespread use. Bangladesh produces, as of 2018, 33 percent of the total worldwide production of jute.
context_section_description: Historically jute produced in Bengal was made into rope and clothes using local handlooms. During the Napoleonic wars (1803-1815) in Europe the supply of Russian flax linen to mills in Dundee, Scotland. The British needed a new source and jute was touted as a potential alternate to Russian flax. The problem with manufacturing jute fabrics in industrial mills was that Jute fabric was too course for the machines. The firm of Balfour and Melville developed a process to weaken the fabric by using water and whale fat. In 1838, Dundee mills received an order to manufacture sacks for sugar plantations in Dutch controlled Java. They produced jute burlap sacks for the order using the Balfour and Melville method. This generated demand and promoted jute from Bengal. Demand for jute further increased following the Crimean War (1853-1856). In 1873, the British Raj formed a commission with led by HC Kerr to investigate the jute industry and jute cultivation in Bengal.  Report on the Cultivation of, and Trade in, Jute in Bengal was published in 1877. The report suggested that large scale jute cultivation began in the 1840s in the Bengal region.
  George Auckland, along with a Bengali partner, Shyamsunder Sen, established the first jute mill in the region 1855 in Rishra on the banks of the Hooghly River. The American Civil War had made it necessary to find an alternate fabric source. Jute was a good alternate as it was relatively cheaper and was sourced from a British colony, Bengal Presidency of British India. Jute mills were opened around Kolkata which rapidly grew in numbers in the later half of the 19th century. In 1882, there were 18 mills which had increased to 51 by 1901 and employed 10 thousand workers. The majority of the jute manufactured in the mills were exported to Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The Jute industry had become the second largest industry in British India after the cotton industry and Kolkata became the centre of the jute trade. The majority of the factories were located outside Kolkata and were owned by foreigners.
  In the 1920s, jute prices rose dramatically which also lead to increased production. Jute prices fell in the 1930s despite the Indian Jute Mills Association trying to stop the price decline by reducing working hours. The British Raj formed the Bengal Jute Inquiry Committee to create reports on the state of the Jute industry in Bengal in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It published two reports, one in 1934 and another in 1939. The report identified that low prices in one year led to lower production and higher prices the next year, this was followed subsequently by higher production and lower prices next year. The reports recommended the government restrict the production of jute.
  During World War Two production increased and at the end of the war there were 111 jute mills in the region. Jute production took place in the East Bengal while the majority of the mills were located in West Bengal. After the Partition of India, this became difficult as East Bengal joined Pakistan and West Bengal went to India. From 1947 to 1948, there was free trade between India and Pakistan which stopped when India declared Pakistan a foreign country and imposed border control. Trade between the two regions became difficult and Pakistan also started to develop Jute mills in East Bengal. Before the Partition of India, there were 108 jute mills in Bengal and all of them were located in West Bengal. East Bengal despite being where the majority of the jute was cultivated was left with no mills after becoming part of Pakistan. India and Pakistan tried halfheartedly to continue the Jute trade between East and West Bengal as both countries were trying to become selfsufficient in the production and processing of jute. India was trying to encourage domestic cultivation and Pakistan was trying to encourage domestic entrepreneurs to establish jute mills.
  Bawa Jute Mills Limited, Adamjee Jute Mills, and Victory Jute Products Limited were established in 1951 in East Bengal. Adamjee Jute Mills was built with finan
caption: Drying jute fibre
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