Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse and strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which was once classified with the family Tiliaceae, more recently with Malvaceae, and has now been reclassified as belonging to the family Sparrmanniaceae.

Jute is one of the most affordable natural fibres and is the second only to cotton in amount produced and variety of uses of vegetable fibres.

Jute fibres are composed primarily of the plant materials cellulose (major component of plant fibre) and lignin (major components of wood fibre). It is thus a ligno-cellulosic fibre, which is partially a textile fibre and partially wood. It falls into the bast fibre category (fibre collected from bast or skin of the plant) along with kenaf, industrial hemp, flax (linen), ramie, etc.

The industrial term for jute fibre is raw jute. The fibres are off-white to brown, and 1-4 metres (3-12 feet) long.