19/11/2024
Antonio John Costa
Hemp is on the rise, but with growth comes new challenges and opportunities. This is the outcome of the first roundtable on industrial hemp cultivation, which focused on the development of the sector, but also on the challenges associated with this growth. Franck Barbier, from Interchanvre, admitted that the industry wants to continue growing, and even assumes that in the next 5 years, the cultivated area could double. The president of Interchanvre admitted that France is responsible for more than 20% of hemp production in Europe, having already surpassed Canada in terms of global position in producers, currently occupying the second position in total cultivated area.
If this growth occurs, France will consolidate its dominant position, something that for Christophe Février also represents challenges that cannot be ignored, because the industry has been constantly reorganizing itself over the last 20 years, and today “there is innovation that did not exist before”. The director of Hemp-it added that today it is possible to create varieties with other types of mechanisms, such as molecular marking, but also to introduce varieties that present some dominant genes in order to reduce crop variability.
