Jute: Characteristics
Golden, strong and clean: what good retting delivers
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 3.70 Mt of raw jute (2024) | Output recovered from 2.85 Mt in 2010, driven by Bangladesh (2.09 Mt) while India fell to 1.41 Mt from 1.80 Mt. The world harvested 1.45 Mha. | FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published as a world figure; JCI bought 131,700 t (13.17 lakh quintals) at MSP in 2023-24, about 9% of India's crop | Baled fibre keeps for months, so mills and traders carry private stocks between harvests. India has no formal buffer norm; JCI's MSP purchases set a floor and its stocks are sold to mills. | The Week/PTI, May 2025; FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | Mill utilisation is not published in the sources used. Capacity has shrunk: Bangladesh's state-owned BJMC mills stopped production in 2020. In India, mill demand is set by government B-twill bag orders under the packaging mandate (100% of foodgrain, 20% of sugar). | content_v2 jute; CCEA decision, Oct 2020 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | Bangladesh 56.4%, top-3 (Bangladesh, India, Cambodia) 98.6%, HHI 4,648 | Two countries in one delta grow 94.5% of the crop. Company shares are not published; India's mills cluster along the Hooghly in West Bengal. | FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | high: annual crop, area switches with rice each season | Farmers choose between jute and aus or aman rice based on last season's relative prices. Radetzki and Warell note that jute supply expanded quickly whenever prices stayed high, which ruled out producer cartels. | Radetzki & Warell (2021); content_v2 jute |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | no capacity pipeline; MSP and mandates set the path | India raised the MSP to Rs 5,650 per quintal for 2025-26 from Rs 5,335. Demand support comes from plastic bag bans and the packaging mandate. CapEx figures are not published. | The Week/PTI, May 2025; PIB, Jan 2025 |
| Logistics and export flows | about 3.5% of world output traded as raw fibre: India imported 130 kt in 2024 | Raw jute moves from Bangladesh to Indian mills by road through Petrapole-Benapole and by river. World raw jute imports were worth $182 million in 2024, with India taking 47.9%. Most trade by value is in yarn and goods, under other HS codes. Bangladesh's periodic raw jute export bans are the main chokepoint. | UN Comtrade 2024 (HS 5303); content jute lessons |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Jute is a long, coarse bast fibre made mostly of cellulose with a high lignin content, which makes it stiff, strong and cheap but not soft. Traders grade it by strength, colour, root content, defects and fineness. Good retting gives clean, golden, strong fibre; poor retting leaves bark and lowers the grade. Its moisture absorption makes sacks breathe, which suits grain storage.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade | India: tossa TD-1 to TD-8 and white W-1 to W-8 (BIS); MSP benchmark grade TD-3 | Grade sets price and which products a mill can make | BIS grading for raw jute; JCI MSP notification (indicative) |
| Standard moisture regain | 13.75% | Commercial weight is corrected to this regain, so wet fibre is discounted | BIS / ISO textile conventions (indicative) |
| Chemical composition | cellulose about 58-63%, hemicellulose about 21-24%, lignin about 12-14% | High lignin gives stiffness and strength but limits softness and dyeing | textile science literature (indicative) |
| Fibre strength | bundle tenacity about 25-35 g/tex; elongation at break about 1-2% | Strength decides sacking and yarn quality; low elongation means little stretch | textile science literature (indicative) |
| Fibre length and fineness | commercial strands about 1.5-3 m; ultimate cells about 2-5 mm long, 15-20 micrometres wide | Long strands suit coarse yarn; fineness sets yarn count | textile science literature (indicative) |
| Root content and defects | graded by share of hard root ends, specks and bark | Defects raise waste (caddis) in carding and lower grade | BIS grading criteria (indicative) |