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| One of the most important agricultural products of the world's tropical regions is sisal fiber obtained from the Agave plant. The genus Agave has many species most of which produce fiber, but the vast majority of commercial quality sisal is from Agave Sisalana. Agave is indigenous to Central America and the southernmost part of North America where its cultivation began on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. In Mexico and the Southwestern United States there are over fifty species of Agave. Other common names for plants in this genus are henequen, maguey, century plant, and American aloe. Agave thrives in tropical, semiarid regions. Over half the sisal fiber produced in the world comes from East Africa -- Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique -- where plantations devoted to Agave sisalana were established at the turn of the twentieth century. In this area sisal is the major coarse fiber industry, contributing significantly to the economy of these countries. Most of Merida Meridian's sisal comes from Kenya and Tanzania; the balance is from Brazil. Agave sisalana is a squat plant with long, knife- shaped leaves that form a rosette close to the ground. These fleshy, rigid leaves, from which the sisal fiber is derived, are usually grayish-green to dark green. The fiber within is coarse, long and extremely strong. Its color is usually creamy white to a pale yellow, but some sisal can have a reddish cast. The process of separating the fleshy outside of the leaves from the fibers on the inside is an arduous one. First the leaves are crushed and scraped, then the fiber is washed thoroughly, further separating the waste pulp from the fiber. This is called decortication. In many places this is now done by machine. Next the fiber is graded and sorted, then either hung in the sun to dry or put into a drying machine. |
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