Sometimes known as China grass or rhea, ramie can be an expensive fiber to produce due to the complex processes involved in extracting and cleaning the material. Cutting, scraping, pounding, washing, heating, chemical exposure, and a number of other steps are often required before the fiber is ready for spinning, which is also difficult due to the brittleness of the fiber. Weaving ramie is a procedure that takes special care as well. Perhaps it is not surprising, therefore, that the world’s leading producer of ramie fibers and fabrics is China, the country that has been carrying out the multifarious stages of ramie production the longest. Korea, the Philippines, and Brazil, however, are China’s strongest competitors in the industry.