Paper makers say they are going through a severe crisis whether the authorities admit it or not.
Imports of pulp, a key raw material for papermaking, have fallen sharply in the country in recent months due to the dollar crisis. The shortage of pulp has become so dire that the country’s paper makers are now hoarding felna, or waste paper, to keep production running ahead of the textbook festival on January 1 and the month-long book fair starting on February 1.
However, this import crisis has again turned out to be a boon for waste paper collectors, traders and suppliers. As an alternative to pulp, they have developed a supply chain of felt paper as a secondary or auxiliary raw material to paper mills.
An example can be mentioned about Masudur Rahman, a scrap dealer in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi. Over the past few months, he said, he has seen a huge increase in business.
Masudur buys white waste paper from door-to-door collectors of used and waste paper. These collectors buy paper at Tk 40 per kg and sell it at Tk 50.
Masudur said that the price of waste paper has increased almost twice in the last two months.
Babul Hossain, President of Bangladesh Waste Paper Supply Association, said that recently, even if they want to pay more for waste paper, collectors are not getting enough paper from homes.
He said till six months back, the collectors used to buy newspaper (used) at Tk 30 to Tk 35 and for white waste paper Tk 50 to Tk 60. There now the price of newspaper is Rs 48 to Rs 50 per kg and white waste paper is Rs 70 to Rs 80. But even after paying high prices, it is not possible to collect enough waste paper according to the demand.
Babul Hussain told The Business Standard, “Earlier we used to get 200 tonnes of waste paper per month, but now it has become difficult to collect even 150 tonnes per month.”
Moklesur Rahman, a collector of waste paper and old books in Dhaka’s Jigatla, said that his daily collection was about 40 kg, which has now reduced to 15 to 20 kg.
Bangladesh has a total of 105 paper mills; But 80 of them are not produced now. The remaining 20 mills require about 4 lakh tonnes of pulp annually.
But according to the Bangladesh Paper Mills Association, production has now stagnated against the country’s annual demand of 6 to 7 lakh paper. And the main reason for such stagnation in production is shortage of raw materials and insufficient supply of gas in factories.
Mohammad Sohail, general manager of Raja Paper Mill in Bogra, said that against the demand of 80 tonnes of waste paper per day, the supply of his mill is only 15 to 20 tonnes per day.
“Whether the authorities admit it or not, we are going through a severe crisis,” Mustafizur Rahman, a top leader of the Paper Mills Association, told The Business Standard.
Quality compromises in textbook printing
On January 1, 2023, textbook festival will be held across the country. New books will be handed out to school children. But due to the ongoing crisis, quality has to be compromised in making textbooks. Reportedly, paper mills are producing B-grade white paper from waste paper for the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.
Chairman of the board Professor Farhadul Islam told TBS, “Since the books will be printed with second class (B-grade) paper, the quality of printing may also be compromised.”
The board is responsible for distributing 34 crore textbooks to pre-primary, primary and secondary level students across the country next year. Professor Farhadul said that about 100,000 tons of white paper is required for this.
“I accept that the quality of the print will not be what I wanted. But you have to admit that we are going through a crisis,” he said.
He also said that the board has provided 110 tons of old books and waste paper with various papers till the middle of December.
Millers and printers say virgin pulp is needed to make A-grade white print paper. However, the availability of B-grade papers is also now very less compared to the demand for textbook printing due to the pulp crisis.
Kamrul Hasan Shaik, publisher of Panjeri Publication Limited and vice-president of Bangladesh Publishers and Book-Sellers Association, said that he has about 2 crore textbook printing work orders.
Stating that the company is desperately looking for printing paper, Shaik said, “We have completed only 9.6 lakh books. The rest will be printed as soon as we get the paper.”
However, Professor Farhadul hopes that it will be possible to hand over new books to all students by January 20 next year.
“The board has already sent about 80 percent secondary and 60 percent primary level textbooks to upazilas till December 24,” he said.
Even in the dire book fair of paper crisis
Publishers don’t see any signs of improvement in this ongoing paper crisis anytime soon. They said, because of this, they are going to bring fewer new books to this year’s Ekushe Book Fair.
Kamrul Hasan Shaik said, Panjeri publishes 300 to 500 new books regularly at the book fair. But this number may come down to only 45 this time.
Redwanur Rahman Jewel of Nalanda Publication said that the number of their new books may be reduced by half compared to the previous year due to higher prices.
Jewel said that his company used to publish 50 to 60 new books at the book fair. “But we have decided to publish only 15 to 20 new books this time,” he added.
This is the translation version of the Bengali version news of TBS by Ariful Islam Mithu. The original version can be found here
