The Jute Corporation of India Ltd. (JCI) was set up in 1971 as an official agency by the Government of India under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, with the aim to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to the jute cultivators. It spread in 7 states which are eminent for jute growing in India including West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh.
Over the years, JCI is continuously making endeavors to achieve its goal of self-sustenance through diversification of its activities and to sell the Jute Diversified Products through various sales channels like E-commerce. E-Commerce is not just one of JCI’s key growth trajectories but it’s one of its most exciting opportunities as it is desired to make jute goods available to the customers irrespective of geographical barrier whenever they will be in need and thus giving them multiple options to shop. The Moto of E-commerce is to build a platform for ‘Vocal for Local” solely manufactured by Indian Manufacturers with Made in India thought.
JCI’s endeavors to excellence in product quality, re-define, and elevate the image of JCI’s products to highly fashionable stylish material. JCI’s focus is on the latest innovative design which trendy and catchy and also re-usable Jute items which are made by skilled artisans. We are dedicated towards preserving rich and vibrant traditional Indian art, which provides livelihood to scores of talented and skilled yet underprivileged families of India.
JCI provides a variety of Jute bags and other items with the use of 100% natural, bio-degradable, sustainable products and offers customization options to all its consumers as clients.
India is witnessing a significant paradigm shift in economic policy making and programme implementation. Since 1990 globalization, liberalization and privatization are the buzzwords of such paradigm shift. This has impacted the environment in which the various stakeholders of a sector like jute are functioning today.
The rise of the jute industry in the subcontinent was helped by many geographical as well as historical factors. The two world wars and the demand for packaging material in the traditional world led to the rise of the Jute Industry.
There are millions of people in the world who derive their livelihood from the cultivation and processing of natural fibers like Jute. The commodity chain of jute – involving several stages like research and development, cultivation, extraction or retting of the fibers, primary processing of the fiber for their marketing, secondary processing of the fibre to yarn, dyeing, and other processing to convert the yarn to fabrics, making of cordage and manufacturing of other items, trading of jute goods, etc – employs millions directly and individually in the associated activities of trading and transportation.
Most of the farmers involved in cultivation of natural fiber jute are small and marginal farmers. Development programmes for jute fibers are now focused on increasing productivity and value addition to enhance the economic levels of large number of people engaged in the commodity chain.
The decline of demand for classical jute products like sacks and Hessian carpet backing cloth, ropes and twine, canvas etc. had prompted various organizations to find alternative uses of the natural fibers. There are some promising technological breakthrough concerning new uses of jute. The jute composites, geojute, paper & pulp from whole jute plant as well as from jute fibres, practical boards from jute sticks etc. are showing such promises. Moreover, there are innovations in designing and manufacturing blended fabrics, home textiles, shopping bags, decorative items, jewelry and other non- traditional items manufactured from jute and / or blended yarns and fabrics.
However, the use of such items is limited to niche market of non – traditional jute items. Most of the manufactures of non – traditional items in India belongs to small and tiny cottage industry sector and hence lack resources to benefit from economies of scale and other organizational benefits of modern manufacturing and commerce.
Keeping the above constrains in mind JCI took the initiative of creating an E – commerce platform for benefiting the rural artisans to portray their niche products and definitely earn livelihood for the entire family.
In the past most E-commerce platform have been development using jute or jute blended fabrics items, without characteristics them fully or contrasting with existing products. Whereas JCI has benchmarked every new product with a standard, which need to be developed for such development. JCI has developed the quality profile for each specific end use of jute and jute blended products.
JCI has considered a basket of various characteristics while developing jute and jute blended item for value addition. They are as follows: –
Composition & construction, Fibers present (in percent), Union / Blend, Ward / weft count ,Warp / weft density ,Physical properties , Thickness ,Weight / area (gsm), Fastness properties, To light, To wash ,To crocking , Performance properties, Abrasion resistance, Fibre shedding, Wrinkle recovery, Puncture resistance, Optical properties, Luster, Colour, Surface properties, Fabrics appearance, Compressibility & recovery, Prickness, Mechanical properties, Textile strength, Flexural rigidity, Shear rigidity ,Dimensional stability, Shrinkage
JCI has developed various modern designs for bags, home decor, office stationery, school accessories, fashion accessories etc. for revamping jute products and make it as convenient and useful for day to day life. Availing Jute Products From JCI E- Commerce platform will not only reduce carbon foot print but also indulges in a step forward to self-reliant India by providing livelihood to the rural youth entrepreneurs, artisans etc.