Amid increasing awareness against the use of plastic bags, especially in the European countries, Indian jute carry and shopping bags exporters shipped over 40 million bags in the fiscal ended March 2009 and the number is likely to cross 75 million in the next three years.
"We see a big scope globally for Indian jute shopping bags as an alternative to plastic bags," President of Association of Jute and Handicrafts Entrepreneurs of Eastern India Sushil Khetan said at Indian Sourcing Fair here.
India's export of jute bags in 2008-09 is estimated at Rs 200 crore while it was Rs 120 crore in the previous year, he said.
As per industry estimates, India had exported about 40 million jute bags mainly to Europe in 2008-09 and the number is likely to cross 75 million by 2011-12.
With the entry of big jute mills in manufacturing of the bags, the production of the item, which is mainly in the micro and small enterprises, has picked up substantially in a couple of years.
Though the jute bags market is still in a nascent stage, Indian entrepreneurs see a huge opportunity for themselves as they do not see major competition from any other country, not even from jute-growing Bangladesh.
Source : Business Standard