Jute bags – coloured and printed shopping bags for life
The natural, rough texture of jute makes attractive, rugged reusable shopping bags. We can deliver logo printed jute bags to you in just one week, and the minimum print run is only 250 bags. Find out more about our printed jute shopping bags.
Jute (Corchorus capsularis) is one of the world’s most important commodity fibres. A tropical cousin of the European lime or linden tree, it is cultivated in Bangladesh and India - typically intercropped with paddy (rice). Jute grows during the monsoon season, so unlike cotton, it needs no artificial irrigation.
Every September, farmers cut down the stems, dry them in the sun and then soak them in water to loosen the bark and dissolve the gum that holds the woody fibres together. This process is called “retting”. The fibre is then extracted by hand. Each bundle of jute stems yields a hank of very strong fibres some 2m long.
The raw jute is processed in a mill where it is sorted, cleaned and carded before being spun into yarn; the yarn is then woven into fabric. The fibres in jute are longitudinally strong but laterally brittle, so they develop microscopic fractures during the weaving process. Hence the slightly rough appearance of the material.