Jute fibre is often called hessian, jute fabrics are also called hessian cloth, and jute sacks are called gunny bags in some European countries. The fabric made from jute is popularly known as burlap in North America.
JUTE CULTIVATION
The suitable climate for growing jute (warm and wet climate) is offered by the monsoon climate during the monsoon season. Temperatures ranging 20 ºC to 40 ºC and relative humidity of 70%-80% are favourable for successful cultivation. Jute requries 5-8 cm of rainfall weekly with extra needed during the sowing period.
White Jute (Corchorus capsularis)
In several historical documents (especially, Ain-e-Akbari by Abul Fazal in 1590) during the era of great Mughal Emperor Akbar (1542–1605) states that the poor villagers of India used to wear cloths made of Jute. Simple handlooms and hand spinning wheels were used by the weavers, who used to spin cotton yarns as well. History also states that, Indians, especially Bengalis used ropes and twines made of white Jute from ancient times for household and other uses.
Tossa Jute (Corchorus olitorius)
Tossa Jute (Corchorus olitorius) is an Afro-Arabian variety and a member of the Mallow Plant family (same family of Marshmallow). It is quite popular for its leaves that were used as ingredient of an okra slimy Arabian potherb called Molokhiya (ملوخية = of the kings). The Jewish Book of Job mentions this vegetable potherb as Jew's Mallow.
Tossa Jute Fibre is softer, silkier, and stronger than White Jute. This variety astonishingly showed good sustainability in the climate of the Ganges delta. Along with White Jute, Tossa Jute was also being cultivated in the soil of Bengal from the start of the 19th century. Currently, the Bengal region (West Bengal, India and Bangladesh) is the largest global producer of the Tossa Jute (Corchorus olitorius) variety.
History
For centuries, Jute has been an integral part of Bengali culture, which is shared by Both Bangladesh and West Bengal of India. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of the raw jute fibre was exported to the United Kingdom, where it was then processed in mills concentrated in Dundee ("Jute Weaver" was a recognised trade occupation in the 1901 UK census), but this trade had largely ceased by about 1970 due to the entrance of synthetic fibres.
Magaret Donnelly I, was a jute mill landowner in Dundee in the 1800's. She set up the first jute mills in India. In the 1950's and 1960's when nylon and polythene were rarely used, the United Pakistan (then the world leader in Jute products) was earning money through jute of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. It was called the Golden Fibre of Bangladesh, when it used to bring major portion of the foreign currency reserve for Bangladesh. But, as the use of polythene and other synthetic materials as a substitute for jute started to capture the market, most economists said that jute industry is experiencing a decline.
When the Pakistan and India became separate countries in 1948, the tension rised between these two countries and Pakistan decided to stop exporting Jute to the Indian Jute mills. The Indian Jute Industry started to shrink and the Pakistani Jute Industry started to rise. India then went into Jute production, and is currently the largest producer or cultivator of Jute.
For several years, farmers in Bangladesh burnt their crops as they did not get an adequate price. Many exporters that were dealing with jute found other commodities to deal with. The jute related organisations and government bodies also experienced closures, change, and fund cutting. The long decline in demand forced the largest jute mill in the world (Adamjee Jute Mills) to close. Latif Bawany Jute Mills, the second largest, is still running but was nationalized by the government from prominent businessman, Yahya Bawany. But the farmers of Bangladesh surprisingly did not stop growing jute, mainly due to demand in the internal market. Recently, (2004-2006) the jute market turned back again and the price of raw jute increased more than 50% due to high demand of jute products worldwide.
During 1941, Henry Ford tested the strength of a car trunk made from soybean fibre. The trunk was made of soy-protein plastic reinforced with glass, which was stronger, lighter, and more flexible than conventional car panels. This experiment revolutionised the use of natural fibres in the Automobile Industry and made cars lighter to burn less gasoline. The previously used glass fibre proved to be very heavy and emitted poisonous gas when burnt. Therefore, most people died of poisonous gas inhalation, not by wounds during car accidents. This fact has driven the European Union to ban the use of glass fibre in automobiles. When Henry Ford's experiment gained huge response, the automobile companies started to search for other bast fibres, as soybean fibre had problems in moulding. They found that, flax was the best bast fibre for the automobile interior production.
It has been shown that flax, jute, and hemp fibres contain characteristics such as ductile structure and stiffness per unit of weight that result in benefits during side impacts. But, jute was recognised as the next to the best at a quite late time. In some cases, jute has become the better option than flax in producing car interiors. Moreover, jute proved to be the most cost effective fibre in this sector, as jute is the cheapest vegetable fibre with very high tensile strength. However, there are contrasting information regarding this history. Some say that, the car trunk of soy-protein plastic reinforced with glass was invented by an African American employee of Ford Motor Company[citation needed]. Other uses for natural fibres now includes composite production of sheet moulding compound, resin transfer moulding, and vacuum pressing techniques and injection.
Jute has entered various diversified sectors, where natural fibres are gradually becoming better substitution. Among these industries are paper, celluloid products (films), nonwoven textiles, composites (pseudo-wood), and geotextiles.
Uses
Jute is the second most important vegetable fibre after cotton; not only for cultivation, but also for various uses. Jute is used chiefly 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.
While jute is being replaced by synthetic materials in many of these uses, some uses take advantage of jute's biodegradable nature, where synthetics would be unsuitable. Examples of such uses include containers for planting young trees which can be planted directly with the container without disturbing the roots, and land restoration where jute cloth prevents erosion occurring while natural vegetation becomes established.
The fibres are used alone or blended with other types of fibres to make twine and rope. Jute butts, the coarse ends of the plants, are used to make inexpensive cloth. Conversely, very fine threads of jute can be separated out and made into imitation silk. As Jute fibres are also being used to make pulp and paper, and with increasing concern over forest destruction for the wood pulp used to make most paper, the importance of jute for this purpose may increase. Jute has a long history of use in the sackings, carpets, wrapping fabrics (cotton bale), construction fabric manufacturing industry.
Traditionally Jute was used in traditional textile machineries as textile fibres having cellulose (vegetable fibre content) and lignin (wood fibre content). But, the major breakthrough came, when the automobile industry, pulp and paper industry, and the furniture and bedding industry started to use jute and its allied fibres with their non-woven and composite technology to manufacture nonwovens, technical textiles, and composits. Therefore, jute has changed its textile fibre outlook and steadily heading towards its newer identity, i.e. wood fibre. Because, as a textile fibre, jute has reached its peak from where there is no hope of progress. But, as a wood fibre, jute has many promising features [1].
Jute has entered various diversified sectors, where natural fibres are gradually becoming better substitution. Among these industries are paper, celluloid products (films), nonwoven textiles (for car interiors and other uses), composites (pseudo-wood), and geotextiles.
Geotextile is another fact that made this agricultural commodity more popular in the agricultural sector. It is a lightly woven fabric made from natural fibres that is used for soil erosion control, seed protection, weed control, and many other agricultural and landscaping uses. The geotextiles can be used more than a year and the bio-degradable jute geotextile left to rot on the ground keeps the ground cool and is able to make the land more fertile. Methods such as this could be used to transfer the fertility of the Ganges Delta to the deserts of Sahara or Australia [citation needed].
Moreover, jute can be grown in 4-6 months with a huge amount of cellulose being produced from the Jute hurd (Inner woody core or parenchyma of the Jute stem) that can meet most of the wood needs of the world. Jute is the major crop among others that is able to protect deforestation by industrialisation.
Thus, jute is the most environment-friendly fibre starting from the seed to expired fibre, as the expired fibres can be recycled more than once.
Diversified byproducts which can be cultivated from jute include uses in food, cosmetics, medicine, paints, and other products.
Features
Jute fibre is 100% bio-degradable and recyclable and thus environment friendly.
It is a natural fibre with golden and silky shine and hence called The Golden Fibre
It is the cheapest vegetable fibre procured from the bast or skin of the plant's stem
It is the second most important vegetable fibre after cotton, in terms of usage, global consumption, production, and availability
It has high tensile strength, low extensibility, and ensures better breathability of fabrics. Therefore, jute is very suitable in agricultural commodity bulk packaging
It helps to make best quality industrial yarn, fabric, net, and sacks. It is one of the most versatile natural fibres that has been used in raw materials for packaging, textiles, non-textile, construction, and agricultural sectors. Bulking of yarn results in a reduced breaking tenacity and an increased breaking extensibility when blended as a ternary blend.
Jute plant is derived from a relative of the Hemp (Cannabis) plant. However, Jute is totally free from narcotic elements or odour
The varieties of Jute are: Tossa Jute (Corchorus olitorius) and White Jute (Corchorus capsularis)
The best source of Jute in the world is the Bengal Delta Plain in the Ganges Delta, most of which is occupied by Bangladesh.
Advantages of jute include good insulating and antistatic properties, as well as having low thermal conductivity and a moderate moisture regain. Other advantages of jute include acoustic insulating properties and manufacture with no skin irritations.
Jute has the ability to be blended with other fibres, both synthetic and natural, and accepts cellulosic dye classes such as natural, basic, vat, sulfur, reactive, and pigment dyes. As the demand for natural comfort fibres increases, the demand for jute and other natural fibres that can be blended with cotton will increase. To meet this demand, it has been suggested that the natural fibre industry adopt the Rieter's Elitex system, in order to modernize processing. The resulting jute/cotton yarns will produce fabrics with a reduced cost of wet processing treatments. Jute can also be blended with wool. By treating jute with caustic soda, crimp, softness, pliability and appearance is improved, aiding in its ability to be spun with wool. Liquid ammonia has a similar effect on jute, as well as the added characteristic of improving flame resistance when treated with flameproofing agents.
Some noted disadvantages include poor drapability and crease resistance, brittleness, fibre shedding, and yellowing in sunlight. However, preparation of fabrics with castor oil lubricants result in less yellowing and less fabric weight loss, as well as increased dyeing brilliance. Jute has a decreased strength when wet, and also becomes subject to microbial attack in humid climates. Jute can be processed with an enzyme in order to reduce some of its brittleness and stiffness. Once treated with an enzyme, jute shows an affinity to readily accept natural dyes, which can be made from marigold flower extract. In one attempt to dye jute fabric with this extract, bleached fabric was mordanted with ferrous sulphate, increasing the fabrics dye uptake value. Jute also responds well to reactive dyeing. This process is used for bright and fast coloured value-added diversified products made from jute.
Coarse Jute fabric is the most popular fabric that is used for making sacks all over the world. Apart from this, jute bags, jute mattress for bedding, jute ropes and paper are also common to see. Numerous uses truly make the Jute one of the most versatile fibers gifted to man by nature that finds various uses in the form of handicrafts, bags, rugs, carpets. Next to cotton, jute is the cheapest and the most important of all textile fibers. Furthermore it is the strength characteristics of jute that makes it so demanding in rope and yarn industry. Jute cultivation provides work for millions of farmers, landless laborers, industrial workers and provides jobs for many others, indirectly.
Because of low cost, more strength, high production level and renewal tendency, jute fabric is the one of the most popular natural fabrics.
Jute Fabric History in India
In India the production of jute is not new. It was the English traders who first of all found out the importance of jute and regarded it as a good substitute to hemp and flax that are quiet expensive fabrics. Kolkata in West Bengal is and was the hub for the jute fabric production as raw material here is easily available. So in 1855, Kolkata saw the first jute mill in the year 1855. By 1869 there were five mills and by 1910 the number rose to 38 such mills. After partition most of the jute fiber growing part turned to Pakistan but India soon had made a remarkable growth in the production of raw material. Now this industry has fully grown and all the jute fabric suppliers, manufacturers and jute fabric exporter's need are taken care by the various associations.
To further promote the jute industry in India, the Jute Manufactures Development Council was established in 1983 by the Act of Indian Parliament under the Government of India. Jute Manufacturers, Jute Suppliers, Jute Exporters from India with the overall jute industry were benefited a lot by the Jute Manufacturers Development Council. JMDC is doing all sorts of efforts in uplifting the better marketing of the jute products. With this manufacturing of jute fabric in Delhi, Jaipur, Gujrat and other states is also getting popular along with Kolkata who are now entering into big market of natural fabric.
Improvement in the Jute Fabric
In the beginning jute fabric was only used for making bags and sacks but later on its usage in garments and in textile furnishings had also been explored. So from the coarse jute fabric, finer fabric called burlap or hessian were produced. This has give a real growth to Indian jute mills. Hessian is also popular as jute fabric UK.
Processing of Jute
As the raw material for jute fabric is grown in different parts of the state and country so the difference in the color, strength and size is natural. The first jute process is batching where all the raw fibers are blended to give uniform strength and color. Then to remove any barky portion from the fabric jute and to make it completely plaint, jute is treated with oil and water emulsion in the spiral fluted rollers. After this in breaker or finisher cards, the jute fiber length is reduced and these are then transformed to 5" to 6" wide ribbons called sliver. Silvers are then twisted to form rove on to bobbins. This is then used to spin the jute fabric.
Characteristics of Jute Fabric
Jute fabric is made from the long, soft and shiny fiber that are spun into grainy but strong threads. Jute is one of the cheapest natural fibers, and is second only to cotton in the amount produced and variety of uses. Jute fibers are composed primarily of the plant materials cellulose, lignin, and pectin that makes it half textile fiber and half wood. Both the fiber and the plant from which it comes are commonly called jute. Also known by the name of hessian, jute fibers can have off white to brown color.
Jute textile is also known for its resistant towards weathering where it can with stand harsh weather and wetting without loosing its strength. It is easy to print, dye, the jute fabric that make it a versatile fabric.
Uses of Jute Fabric
The uses of jute are manifold although the traditional use remains in packing as sacking, hessian and carpet backing. These light weight yarns are to be used in value added textile applications like upholstery, furnishing, garments and bags etc, are just a few examples.
•Jute is used chiefly to make cloth for wrapping bales of raw cotton
•Jute textile is used to make gunny sacks and gunny cloth. In European countries the jute bags are also called gunny bags.
•The fibers are also woven into curtains, chair coverings, carpets, and burlap.
•Very fine threads of jute are made into imitation silk as thus can be found in high quality cloth.
•The fibers are used alone or blended with other types of fibers to make twine and rope.
•Fine fabric made from jute across the world and more popularly in America is known as burlap that is used to make cloth, garments and bags.
•Fabric jute is also used to make canvas that are used for protection from rough weather.
•Wool jute that is the quality of wool as well as jute is chiefly used to make carpets, bath rugs, and durries. Wool jute rugs are getting very popular. These wool jute rugs , carpets and mats are available in various designs and dyed in almost every color to make them more presentable. But the natural look of wool jute is preferred by the consumers who have the taste for natural home and textile furnishings. Pottery Barn is the most popular brand selling wool jute durries and rugs.
•Jute cotton is mainly used to make bags, rugs and sarees. Jute cotton fabric is finer because of cotton blends in jute. Garments made from jute cotton are getting popular and one can see these in ramp these days. Jute cotton breathes air as it allows sir to pass through it. It is also known for its jute properties like resistance towards bacteria and high on flexibility and durability. Shower curtains, living room jute curtains, are also made from jute cotton fabric. Jute cotton and wool jute are also used to make bed spreads , bed covers, pillow covers, jute blinds and other such accessories to decorate your home.
Jute Fabric Suppliers
In India there are numerous jute fabric suppliers who are chiefly located in Kolkata, West Bengal. But jute fabric suppliers can also be found in the other states of India. Few main Jute fabric suppliers are Indarsen Shamlal (P) Ltd, Debonair Fashions Pvt Ltd, Kashmir Craft Creations, Vijay Corporation, Sanjarr International, V-tech Marketing, Polytex Linen Cotton Limited and Ganapati Udyog.
Jute fabric wholesale suppliers keep the quality of jute fabric in mind before manufacturing the fabric and making different products out of it. Jute manufacturers and jute fabric suppliers complete range of jute yarn, jute handspun yarns, various designs and colors of jute fabric along with other fabrics.
Exporters of jute fabric also make jute cloth, jute yarns and other jute material.
Jute Manufacturers
Jute manufacturers not only make the jute fabric and jute textile but also make wonderful jute products that are bought by the consumers all across the world. These products by the jute manufacturers include jute twine, jute yarn, jute ropes, jute coil, jute slippers, bags, kurtas, garments et al
The few jute manufacturers are listed here:
•Boss Communication Pvt. Ltd. [Maharashtra,India]
•Eco Jute Pvt Ltd [West Bengal,India]
•M P International [West Bengal,India]
•Maaz International [Delhi,India]
•Nature Design Concepts [Delhi,India]
•Shabanam Exports [West Bengal,India]
•Varsha Fibre-Fab Industries [Maharashtra,India
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