Jute fibre is a so-called “green” fibre as it is a natural fibre and completely bio-degradable. The term Jute fibre refers to a class of textile fibres that are also called Bast fibre, and there are two types of commercial Jute fibres: Firstly, there is Corchorus Capsularies and secondly Corchorus Olitorius.
Jute fibre is high in demand due to its versatile usages, and the cultivation and drying of the Jute plant has been much improved over recent years. In fact, Jute is the second most imported and exported vegetable fibre after cotton due to its versatility.
Jute is used mainly to make cloth for wrapping bales of raw cotton, and to make sacks and coarse cloth. The fibres are also woven into curtains, chair coverings, carpets, area rugs, hessian cloth, and backing for linoleum. Some contemporary labels also produce clothing items made from jute.
Jute Fibres are graded according to the quality of fibres in proportion to the following properties:
- Length
- Fineness
- Strength
- Colour and Uniformity
- Lustre
- Roots and Cleanliness.
There are also two types of grading systems for jute fibres:
1. Local Grading: Local Jute Grading is also divided by two categories namely; Katcha Grading and Pacca Grading.
a. Kutcha Grading: Raw Jute fibres from which roots have not been cut.
b. Pacca Grading: Raw Jute fibres from which roots have been cut.
2. Export Jute Grading: Graphed specifically for export, export jute fibres are categorized from the highest to the lowest quality according to their various properties.
