The Jute Commissioner’s office has recommended a hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) of raw jute by 18.5% to Rs 3,200 per quintal for 2016-17 in order to encourage production of jute. Owing to severe crisis in the crop the current market price is close to Rs 5,000 a quintal while in 2015-16, the MSP was Rs 2,700. The recommendation to hike MSP to Rs 3,200 a quintal for the next year has been forwarded to the government for Cabinet approval.
The production projection given by the Jute Corporation of India (JCI) for 2015-16 seems to be most accurate, given the prevailing production trend and market price behaviour. JCI had projected a crop of 60 lakh bales for the current fiscal while other projections had put it at as high as 103 lakh bales.
The area of raw jute cultivation is estimated to have reduced to 7.46 lakh hectares during the current year (2015-16) compared with 8.029 lakh hectares in 2014-15.