Key Details
India is the world’s largest producer of raw jute and accounts for about 75% of estimated global jute-goods production.
Area | Key Insight |
|---|---|
Production | 76 lakh bales of raw jute produced in 2025–26; separately, the Third Advance Estimate puts combined jute and mesta production at 94.03 lakh bales, up from 88.02 lakh bales in 2024–25. |
Livelihood Base | The sector supports nearly 40 lakh farm families and directly employs around 3.7 lakh workers in organised mills and diversified units. |
Industrial Concentration | India had 120 composite jute mills as of December 2025, including 89 in West Bengal. |
Domestic Demand | India produced 12.80 lakh tonnes of jute goods in 2025–26, of which about 94% was consumed domestically. |
Exports | Jute-goods exports were about 1.71 lakh tonnes worth ₹3,155 crore, while raw-jute exports were worth about ₹225 crore in 2025–26. |
Farmer Support | The raw-jute MSP is ₹5,925 per quintal for 2026–27, around 147% above the 2014–15 level. |
Assured Market | Mandatory jute packaging continues for 100% of food grains and 20% of sugar. |
Jute Still Depends Heavily on Policy-Supported Demand
India’s jute industry remains concentrated in eastern India, particularly West Bengal, which has 89 of the country’s 120 composite mills. Bihar, Assam, Odisha and Jharkhand are also important cultivation regions.
The sector links a large smallholder farming base with organised manufacturing, but its stability continues to depend substantially on two policy supports: MSP procurement and mandatory jute packaging.
The Jute Corporation of India conducts MSP operations through around 110 purchase centres, procuring when market prices fall below the notified level. Mandatory packaging, meanwhile, provides mills with a large assured market.
These mechanisms support cultivation and employment, but also leave the industry dependent on government-supported demand. The longer-term challenge is to develop commercially viable markets beyond traditional sacks and packaging.
Diversification Is the Central Growth Strategy
The National Jute Development Programme, with an outlay of ₹485.58 crore for 2021–22 to 2025–26, supports productivity, fibre quality, processing and product diversification.
A key focus is expanding jute into higher-value and non-traditional applications, including construction, soil conservation, apparel and furnishings.
Jute geotextiles can be used in road construction, railway formations, embankments, erosion control, drainage and soil stabilisation, potentially creating an institutional market linked to infrastructure and environmental restoration.
The use of jute-viscose clothing by India’s contingent at the 2026 Commonwealth Games similarly reflects an effort to reposition jute as a contemporary textile rather than primarily a packaging material.
Quality and Branding Must Support Diversification
Moving into new markets requires jute products to compete on quality, design and consumer appeal.
The Jute Mark India logo certifies quality and verifies jute content in blended products, while domestic fairs, retail channels and export promotion seek to improve market access, including for smaller producers.
This marks a shift from policies primarily protecting production and demand towards product development, branding and market creation. The longer-term test is whether jute’s environmental advantages can generate demand without depending predominantly on compulsory procurement.
Digital Tools Modernise the Supply Chain
The JUTE-SMART platform, used for procurement and supply of jute bags, was expanded in 2026 to cover transporters, traders, importers and mills. Registration and regulatory returns have also been digitised.
Separately, ISRO, the National Remote Sensing Centre, Jute Corporation of India and National Jute Board have developed a satellite- and field-based crop information system. Closer-to-real-time cultivation data can improve crop estimation and inform procurement and supply decisions.
These initiatives point towards a broader transition: from a sector sustained mainly through price and packaging support towards one increasingly built around diversification, quality assurance, data and market development.
Policy Relevance
The central transition is from protection to competitiveness: Minimum support prices and mandatory packaging remain important, but long-term growth will depend on commercially viable new uses.
Green-material demand creates a new opportunity: Jute’s biodegradability can make it relevant in infrastructure, packaging and textiles as demand for alternatives to synthetic materials rises.
Diversification could broaden rural incomes: Higher-value jute products can create opportunities for artisans, women’s groups and small enterprises beyond cultivation and mill employment.
Institutional procurement can help create new markets: Wider use of jute geotextiles in roads, railways and erosion control could provide scale to emerging applications.
Quality and branding are becoming as important as production: Certification and market development will determine whether diversified products can compete domestically and internationally.
Better data can improve policy decisions: Digital procurement and satellite-based crop monitoring can reduce uncertainty over production, supply and market requirements.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can India create a national green procurement and standards framework that gives jute-based products a measurable competitive advantage over plastic and synthetic alternatives?
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