Facing stiff challenges in the international market due to high raw jute prices, jute products maker Cheviot Company Ltd is focusing more on the domestic market and developing new and value-added products for exports to protect margins.
Raw jute prices are currently hovering around ₹13,000 a quintal, compared with a five-year average of around ₹6,000 a quintal. Amid uncertainty over raw jute availability, prices had touched ₹19,000 a quintal in early July.
“Given the size of this year’s crop, the industry expected raw jute prices to soften much more than they have. Mills today are carrying only about 15 to 17 days of inventory, against the one-and-a-half to two months of stock they typically hold,” Cheviot Company Ltd’s whole-time director Utkarsh Kanoria told businessline.
An insufficient raw jute crop last year created a difficult situation for the jute industry throughout the season. Prices began rising at the start of the jute year 2025–26, as the crop size remained depressed at around 76 lakh bales of 180 kg each, compared to approximately 75 lakh bales in 2024–25. Significantly, India’s raw jute production in 2023-24 was 90 lakh bales. Additionally, after Bangladesh abruptly announced a ban on the export of raw jute from September 2025, domestic raw jute prices experienced an abnormal escalation.
For the jute year 2026-27, crop size is estimated to be around 92-95 lakh bales, as higher remunerative prices for farmers have pulled acreage back into jute.
“With the land border with Bangladesh closed, there is a raw material price gap of about 15 to 20 per cent between India and Bangladesh, and that is hurting Indian exports badly. Across the industry, I would estimate we have lost 30 to 40 per cent of our export market since the border closed about a year ago,” Kanoria said.
Kolkata-based Cheviot Company, which manufactures jute products with the flexibility to cater to both domestic and international markets, will be focusing more on the domestic market this fiscal to protect its margins.
For jute mills, the government’s order book for foodgrain sacking is the most robust this year.
“Domestic demand, largely from government procurement of jute bags for wheat and rice, has been very strong this year, so we have shifted more of our production towards the domestic market. If that demand holds, the domestic industry should remain healthy,” Kanoria said.
Observing that jute mills cannot survive purely based on the domestic market, he said the company is focussing on developing new and value-added products for exports in the current financial year.
“We are developing new products and upgrading existing ones, with a focus on erosion control products, technical textiles and overall quality. New European packaging regulations are raising the bar on food safety, and meeting those standards will be harder for many Bangladeshi mills, particularly at the lower end of the market” Kanoria added.
The company has two plants, located in Budge Budge and Falta Special Economic Zone, in West Bengal’s South 24-Parganas district. It is renowned for manufacturing superior quality Hessian fabrics for the export markets at its Export Oriented Unit at the Falta Special Economic Zone.
Published on September 23, 2026
