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- The jute trade is centered mainly around India's West Bengal and Assam, and Bangladesh. The major producing country of jute is India and biggest exporter being Bangladesh, due to their natural fertile soil. Production of jute by India and Bangladesh are respectively 1.968 million ton and 1.349 million metric ton. Bengal jute was exported to South East Asia from the 17th century by the Dutch, French and later by other Europeans. By the 1790s a small export had developed to the Scottish city of Dundee, where the flax spinning industry could use a small percentage to lower costs. Thomas Neigh, a Dundee merchant invented the mechanical process of spinning jute in 1833 by first soaking it in whale oil. Raw jute was exported from Bengal by British merchants in increasing quantities from the 1840s replacing flax in the Dundee mills – becoming known as "Juteopolis". Dundee became the global centre of the industry it had created, employing more than half the population in the mills. In 1858 Indian financiers supported the importation of spinning machinery from Dundee in order to create their own industry. By 1895 jute industries in Bengal overtook the Scottish jute trade. Many Scots worked in Bengal to set up jute factories for Indians, dominated by Marwari brokers like G. D. Birla. Nearly 75% of jute goods are used as packaging materials, burlap, gunny cloth, (hessian), and sacks. Obsolete machinery, trade union troubles and a lack of innovation have seen the Indian industry stagnate for the past 70 years. Jute coffee bags are perhaps the most famous product, known as hessian or burlap. They found a military use starting in the Crimean War. In World War One the government awarded the entire contract for sandbags to a Greek-Indian firm in Calcutta.It has been used in the fishing, construction, art and in the arms industry. India has the bulk of the jute industry (60%), but the raw jute comes mainly from Bangladesh which is the second-largest producer of jute products. Carpet backing cloth, the third major jute outlet, is fast growing in importance. Currently, it consists of roughly 15% of the world's jute goods consumption. The remaining products are carpet yarn, cordage, felts, padding, twine, ropes, decorative fabrics, and heavy-duty miscellaneous items for industrial use. As plastic is banned for consumer bagging, jute bags are now taking a greater share of the market. India produces 60% of global jute products; however, problems of lack of investment, water shortage, poor quality seeds and urbanisation are hampering its regrowth as a more sustainable substitute for other materials, like highly polluting plastic. (en)
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