Sisal

A fiber crop, Agave sisalana, a succulent native to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, named for the port of Sisal from which its fiber was historically exported. Sisal fiber, extracted from the plant's long, sword-shaped leaves, is used for rope, twine, matting and coarse textiles, and the crop became a major plantation industry in East Africa during the colonial period, particularly in German East Africa and later British-administered Tanganyika, where large sisal estates relied on the labor of local and migrant workers under conditions shaped by colonial land and labor policy. Brazil, Tanzania and Kenya remain among the leading modern producers.