Trade Competitiveness of Jute in India: Environmental Aspects

The study was aimed to investigate the comparative advantage and competitiveness of Indian jute. The study was based on secondary data for the period of 30 years (1989-90 to 2018-19). The collected data were sub-divided into three periods and Export Performance Ratio (EPR) was used to measure the comparative advantage of Indian jute. The global competitiveness of jute was evaluated using Nominal protection Coefficient (NPC). The results showed that, the Indian jute had a comparative advantage during all the periods of the study. During all the sub-periods viz, period I, period II and period III and overall period almost all the years, jute export registered the EPR/RCA values greater than unity indicated that India had considerable potential in jute export. The positive RSCA from period I to period III could be attributed to increase in the exports due to increase in jute productivity with the introduction of quality seeds of jute. Jute was found to be moderately competitive as NPC during overall period, was less than unity also, the period-wise NPC values showed that, Indian jute was moderately competitive during period I and period III. While, period II had a non-competitive market with NPC value of 1.39 which might be due to the reduction in area under jute in the country and increasing demand that led to increase in the domestic price of jute during the years under period II. Hence, it is suggested that the efforts are needed to address the constraints in cultivation and efforts are needed to increase productivity through advanced technologies. Development of market infrastructure, storage and transport will increase export. In order to face competition and increase India’s market share in world market India need to consistently supply high quality jute at competitive prices.