A long-standing barrier to unlocking the Eastern Cape’s hemp industry has been broken, with a major breakthrough proving the crop can be processed locally using existing cotton technology.
The development not only opens the door to a fully fledged local value chain, but could also spark thousands of rural jobs in a sector that has, until now, struggled to find a viable market despite growing interest from farmers.
Duma Maquebela, Buffalo City branch manager of the Small Enterprise Development Finance Agency (Sedfa), said it had proven that SA has existing capability for the full value chain, from farming through to the weaving of linen.
“Having a market for hemp has the potential to unlock thousands of rural jobs, as 2,000 hemp growing permits have been issued, but there has been no market for the product,” said Archie Madumane, a Stutterheim farmer and member of the Eastern Cape Hemp Producer’s Association.
He and other farmers in the association have grown hemp successfully, but said the problem was that there was nobody to buy what they had planted and harvested.
“This will change as it has been shown that hemp can be processed locally. We were told it could not be done using the equipment we have in SA, but we proved the doubters wrong,” said Raj Jagesar, founder of Ledile Textile and Fibre Processing.
Examples of the first run of fabric were shown at a stakeholder engagement session in Nelson Mandela Bay earlier this week.
Clothing designed by the Koloni Hub Fashion Incubator in KuGompo City (formerly East London) and manufactured by Time Clothing based in the metro were modelled during the session.
Ledile aims to produce organic hemp fabric for suppliers to the premium market in Europe.
The next phase of the project includes the establishment of clusters of small to medium-scale farmers with supporting infrastructure to grow hemp, including the provision of suitable seed, said Dr Sunshine Blouw of the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (ECRDA).
Hemp has a faster return for farmers than cannabis because it is harvested in about three months before a flower is formed. It is suitable for winter and summer planting.
“For the first three years, government should support the farmers,” said Blouw. “That is how other countries support new industries. If we do that, we’ll then build the necessary confidence with farmers so they can make money from this crop.”
Hemp production is supported by the Eastern Cape government due to its versatility, according to Blouw.
There are more than 50,000 products which can be made from the hemp plant, which he described as a multibillion-rand market in SA, of which the textile market is a “low-hanging fruit”.
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