Tradional Methods

In a nutshell, Jute is harvested 3-4 months after planting, once the flowers have been shed, and after this the Jute is ‘retted’. The traditional and most common method of retting is what is known as `stem retting', in which the complete plant stem is immersed in water for up to a month, in bundles of multiple layers (termed `rets'). The fibres are then separated from the stems and once the fibre is washed, dried, sorted, graded and baled, it is transported to the mills. There, the fibres are softened with selected oils, water and emulsifiers, graded for the correct quality and finally spun into a fabric. The whole process is labour intensive but non polluting and does not consume vast amounts of fossil fuels.