Report March 2025
We returned home from Bangladesh, where our tasks were to quality inspect and approve 12 tonnes of jute yarn, provide engineering consultancy to our Japanese partners, further train staff on the specification requirements peculiar to our niche application market, and collect material for a series of educational videos.
This was our fourth trip. The next will be in the high humidity of the summer to again witness the jute fields and meeting with farmers. It now being the last period of the dry season before the monsoon rains arrive and jute seeds are planted, the dust was overbearing. The air in the capital Dhaka, with a metropolitan population nearing 25 million was a reddish-yellow fog, through which the disc of the sun tried to shine. I’m so glad our production is in Chittagong close to the sea, where conditions are far better.
This was a special trip insomuch the final day involved visiting a very large jute yarn mill to understand how they colour dye their fibre. This operation is next to the part of the factory complex where they still use mineral JBO. It was horrific – the stench unbearable. The low-grade fibre dust unthinkable. It stung the eyes and throat. I’m writing this from my sick bed with a lung infection and the Bengali equivalent of Montezuma’s revenge. How anyone can withstand working in those conditions 8 hours a day 6 days a week is beyond me.
Which brings me to a factor overlooked – the ethics of jute rope production. I’ve witnessed things that cannot ever be unseen. If the crows pecking the carcass of a dog, or roadkill cows rotting beside the N1 highway weren’t bad enough, health & safety in a traditional jute yarn mill would seem fantasy. Not just the unbearable breathing conditions, but operating hazardous machinery where one slip could mean instant amputation or death.
‘We’ refers to our close partnership with the Japanese rope manufacturing corporation owning, operating and managing our 3 factories in Bangladesh. We pride ourselves on the highest quality. We don’t use JBO so there’s no chance of contamination, and we aren’t interested in the cut-throat competitiveness of the low-end markets.
All cordage starting with yarn, our state-of-the-art new-build mill went operational November. This means we now control the entire chain from raw material procurement from the farm collectives through yarn to rope production. There are no middle agents anymore who will manipulate prices and availability, and add misunderstanding leading to mistakes. The stories of legendary scams are scary, and anyone wanting to follow in this market should be aware of the high risks. We’ve trashed 25 tonnes over my years in this field. Beware!
You can see clearly from the two comparative images the difference in working conditions, where by avoiding using low-grade fibre and having an effective dust extraction system, we keep our work environment clean. Our production staff are highly trained and retained by loyalty, best working conditions and remuneration.
When you find impurities in a rope, some will indeed come from inside the material. Others can be picked up from the factory floor, etc. if cleanliness of production is not maintained.
In 25 tonne, 40’ container minimum order quantities, lowest-grade mineral JBO-batched CB yarn can be procured very cheaply – because it’s intended to tie fruit saplings once and biodegrade. Our premium-grade 100% Soybean Oil-batched Tossa is expensive. Then we have to add the costs of finishing (significantly lowering fibre loss, hairiness and nap), high quality rope making, shipping, customs brokerage, warehousing and fulfilment.
You pay for what you get. A customer recently reported of 7,000 meters checked they found only 2 impurities – which is incredible. If you want rubbish and don’t care for the human and environmental impacts of your purchase, you can buy cheap Chinese made, government subsidised low quality horticultural ropes from general high street rope stores all over Japan. This isn’t a route we will consider.
