Jute
Jute is a fiber that is extracted from the stems of plants in the genus Corchorus of the Tiliaceae order, which includes two jute species, white jute (C. capsularis) and upland jute (C. olitorus). Jute has been cultivated in India and Bangladesh since 800 BCE, but itwas not grown as a major cash crop until 1838, when Dundee, Scotland, mills developed a jute-spinning machine. Jute plants are slender-stemmed annuals that are approximately 2.5 to 3.5 meters tall. The fiber is used to manufacture cordage and coarse fabrics that are used to make heavy-duty bags and carpet backing. Jute grows in alluvial soils and can survive in heavy flooding. It will only grow in areas with high temperatures, sand or loam soils, and annual rainfall over 1,000 millimeters. Large-scale jute cultivation is virtually confined to northern and eastern Bengal, mostly in the floodplains of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. More than 97 percent of the world's jute is produced in Asia, including 65 percent in India and 28 percent in Bangladesh. The world's largest jute mill is in Bangladesh. The jute industry has been threatened for more than four decades because synthetic fibers are cheaper to produce than jute.
A boat piled high with jute on the Hooghly River in Calcutta, India, in 1979. (SHELDAN COLLINS/CORBIS)Further Reading
Wieldling, L. (1947) Long Vegetable Fibers: Manila, Sisal, Jute, Flax, and Related Fibers of Commerce. New York: Columbia University Press.
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