Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced primarily from plants in the genus Corchorus.

Jute is one of the most affordable natural fibers in existence and it is second only to cotton in amount produced and variety of uses. Jute fibers are composed primarily of the plant materials cellulose and lignin. It falls into the bast fiber category (fiber collected from bast, the phloem of the plant, sometimes called the "skin") along with kenaf, hemp, flax (linen), ramie, etc