Prospects for the world jute industry
Prospects for the world jute industry to the mid-1990s are analyzed to identify trends likely to follow the confusion in the jute market originating from the 1984/85 fiber supply crisis. These prospects are derived from analysis of information obtained from surveys of jute demand in several countries and from simulation results from a recently built econometric model of the world jute economy. Jute fiber is used primarily as a textile raw material for making packaging products, carpets, industrial fabrics and twine. Its main demand base is derived from the need to package agricultural inputs and produce in countries where storage and distribution to wholesale and retail markets is in packaged form. Structural changes occurring in the world demand for jute are identified. Prospects for the expansion of jute consumption for packaging uses in developing countries are fairly bright since the scope for early changes to bulk-handling and synthetic substitution are limited. The rapid loss of markets for jute sacks and bags to bulk handling in the industrial countries and grain-exporting developing countries during the 1970s has about run its course. So have the losses of fabric markets where synthetic products held distinct advantages in technical performance or cost. The resulting structural shifts in the regional distribution of consumption and changes in the product composition of final demand suggest that the growth in world demand for jute to the mid-1990s should be somewhat higher than was attained during the 1970s and early 1980s. The sharp output decline in India and Bangladesh in 1984 appears to have started another price/supply cycle. On past performance it is likely that the high prices of 1984/85 will lead to large output increases in the 1985/86 and 1986/87 harvests causing prices to fall and leading to a period of low prices and low output in the late 1980s.
Impact of the Changing Structure of Jute Industry on Strategic Management of Business Firms
THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF ISottor of $^tlo£(opI)p IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BY SIRAJ UDDIN AHAIED Under the superv is ion o f Dr. AZHAR KAZMI PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH-iNDIA 1 9 9 2
Trade, exchange rate, and agricultural pricing policies in Thailand
Thailand is still largely an agricultural country. In 1984, agricultural work was still the main source of earnings for more than 70 percent of the population. For much of the 25 year period covered by this report, government intervention in the prices of rice, maize, and natural rubber was extensive. For these products, intervention took the form of explicit export taxes and restrictive quotas. Sugar, on the other hand, was imported until 1960. For many years prior to that, government policy was to encourage growers and thus achieve self-sufficiency. One conclusion of this study is that the Thai sugar industry would have shrunk dramatically if the government had refrained from intervention. Intervention in the prices of rice and natural rubber had the effect of penalizing farm producers by reducing their output prices. There was, as a consequence a shift of resources towards Thailand's small industrial sector. In 1981, the Thai government lifted its quota restrictions, and liberalized its trade by eliminating its intervention in the maize, rice, sugar and natural rubber markets. Unfortunately for export growers, however, the gradual elimination of intervention was overshadowed by sharp declines in the world prices of Thailand's major agricultural exports.