Bangladesh wants to have duty free access to Thailand's jute products. Bangladesh is giving priority to the promotion of environment- friendly jute and jute products. Thousands of workers are employed in Bangladesh’s jute mills. The country is urging Thailand to use jute sacks instead of poly bags for storage of rice and other crops. Bangladesh also wants Thai investors to buy off the public sector jute and textile industry in Bangladesh and invest in modernising the jute mills for the production of 100 per cent export-oriented consumer- friendly modern jute products of international standards.

Jute, a vegetable fiber can be spun into sackcloth, used to be the golden fiber of Bangladesh. It brought much-needed foreign income to the impoverished nation. But it lost its luster in the 1980s after synthetic materials like polythene and plastics were introduced.

Now the natural fiber has made a spectacular comeback. With growing environmental awareness, jute, which is bio-degradable, has become the preferred alternative to polluting synthetic bags. Jute is considered the second most important natural fiber after cotton in terms of cultivation and use. It is mainly grown in eastern India, Bangladesh, China and Burma.

Until recently the fiber was used mostly as a packaging material. With a diversification of jute products, the demand for jute has increased.