Has not Rabindranath Tagore advocated for exploring ash and the possibility is that you may strike gold? Yes one of his popular poem runs: Wherever (you) come across ash, blow it away, you may strike gold in it. The poet has indeed been prophetic. Bangladesh has been using ash as a source of foreign exchange earner. In this case, though, ash itself is proving gold. Fibre is now sans the epithet 'golden' but its stick ironically is set to take its place. The substance with little value so far has suddenly turned the economic tide of a good number of people. Â Â
At a time when jute is still struggling to regain some of its lost glory, a new economic front for it has opened up rather unexpectedly. It is not jute proper but its stalk that has proved precious in recent times. Jute stalks are burnt to produce ash -an ingredient of cosmetics, dry-cell batteries, computer and photocopier ink, face-wash, tooth cleaning medicine, firework and other chemicals. Charcoal dust produced from jute sticks has been a new export earner. In the year 2015-16, charcoal dust produced by 25 factories in the country exported to China has fetched Tk 1.5 billion.Â
For the inaugural year of the venture, this is quite a good beginning. A Chinese citizen first introduced the technology of turning jute sticks into charcoal under certain temperature. Jute stick's use was limited to earthen oven fuel or fences for poor people's huts or betel leaf garden. Now its export value has made it costlier. A factory usually needs 20 tonnes of charcoal to produce three to four tonnes of charcoal dust twice a week. This means the demand for sticks is high.Â
Now that farmers know that apart from jute fibre their stalks have also a high demand in the market, they feel prompted to cultivate jute. The incentive works in a positive manner for jute cultivation. Yet it is not easy to have a meeting point for jute farmers and factory operators. One of the famous jute growing areas is Faridpur. Jute produced there is also of superior quality. The sticks there are not likely to lag behind the fibre. So it is expected that a few charcoal factories would be set up in that jute growing area.Â
The total amount of jute stalks produced in the country is estimated at about 3.0 million tonnes. So far only a small portion of the total could be used for production of charcoal dust. No one will suggest that the entire 3.0 million should be burnt to produce this exporting item. But even if fifty to sixty per cent of the produce can be made good use of in producing charcoal dust, the country's foreign exchange earning can surprise many policymakers and businesspeople alike. Each tonne is exported at $800 -1,000. Â In that case 2,50,000 tonnes of dust will fetch the country nearly $250 million or more, according to some reports.Â
Not a bad economic venture! At times it would seem that the total foreign exchange earned under this head is just a great dividend out of nothing. The ash would have had no use other than cleaning utensils and the sticks used for fences would have ended in bio-degradation or fuel. Instead, the country has found a rich source of something very insignificant. Thanks to the Chinese who introduced the technique and technology for the purpose. One caution though, the issue of environmental safety should be taken into consideration while burning jute sticks. Let it be ensured that the process does not pollute the environment beyond acceptable limit. Â
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A new front of foreign exchange earner
Neil Ray | Published: January 22, 2017 20:02:27 | Updated: October 22, 2017 01:20:53
A new front of foreign exchange earner
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