Economy

Jute, the golden fibre

The floodplain crop that financed Bengal for a century and still leads the world in raw fibre exports.

Jute grows in the silt of the Padma and Jamuna floodplains and is retted in standing water before the fibre is stripped by hand. Bangladeshi scientists sequenced the jute genome in 2010, opening the way to fibre and diversified bio-products.