Nine State-Run Jute Mills Are Back in Production as Private Leases Take Hold
Fourteen state-owned jute mills have been leased to private operators as part of Bangladesh's push to build a $5-7 billion jute export industry — nine are already back in production, with the rest expected online by December.
Bangladesh's long-troubled state-owned jute mill sector is being handed to private operators at a pace the industry hasn't seen in years. Fourteen state-owned jute mills have now been leased to private management, and nine have already resumed production, with the remaining mills expected to restart by December 2026.
The push sits inside a larger ambition: transforming the jute sector into a $5 billion to $7 billion export industry through stronger private participation, modernisation, and product diversification, rather than relying on the ageing, frequently loss-making state mill model that dominated for decades.
INVESTMENT:Tk 1,050 Crore Committed Under One New Lease Alone
The scale of private capital moving into the sector is real: Bangladesh Jute Alliance Limited alone is investing an additional Tk 1,050 crore under a new lease agreement, projected to generate annual production worth around Tk 3,000 crore and create roughly 3,000 jobs. Smaller entrepreneurs aren't being left out of the modernisation story either — the government's Jute Diversification Promotion Center is providing training, marketing support, and branding assistance specifically aimed at small-scale jute manufacturers, alongside cash incentives for exporters more broadly.
For buyers, the practical significance is capacity: mills that had sat idle or under-producing for years are coming back online with private capital behind them, which should ease some of the production bottlenecks that have periodically constrained order fulfilment timelines across the sector.