Bengal govt focuses on tea and jute

Tea and jute sectors hold more potential in West Bengal and industry in the future, West Bengal government industry advisor Siddharth said at the AGM of Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry today.
"Tea and jute are two important industries. Tea demand is growing and industry needs to focus more towards quality and higher production. In case of jute, it is not a dying industry at a time when globally there is renewed interest on green packaging materials," he said.
Demand is bound to grow for jute material, he said adding there is need for some handholding to ensure quality of jute which will help the sector to diversify to new products instead of depending on government orders.

Siddharth said the jute icare pilot project is successful in showcasing improvment in quality of jute fibre but the project requires to be scaled up.
Improved Cultivation and Advanced Retting Exercise for Jute (Jute - ICARE) was launched in 2015 for the better agronomic practices and recently developed microbial-assisted retting.