Let's Talk Hemp Fiber at the Asia International Hemp Expo In this episode of the Let's Talk Hemp podcast, I had the pleasure of hosting a live session at the third annual Asia International Hemp Expo, alongside my co-host Didi from the Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association. We were joined by two remarkable guests: Rachele from Italy, representing the Federation of International Hemp Organizations and the European Industrial Hemp Association, and Ms. Nutra from Thai Pathika, a pioneer in introducing hemp fiber into the textile industry in Thailand.
Let's Talk Hemp Fiber at the Asia International Hemp Expo
In this episode of the Let's Talk Hemp podcast, I had the pleasure of hosting a live session at the third annual Asia International Hemp Expo, alongside my co-host Didi from the Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association. We were joined by two remarkable guests: Rachele from Italy, representing the Federation of International Hemp Organizations and the European Industrial Hemp Association, and Ms. Nutra from Thai Pathika, a pioneer in introducing hemp fiber into the textile industry in Thailand.
We kicked off the discussion by expressing gratitude to the event organizers and sponsors, highlighting the importance of collaboration in the global hemp industry. Rachele shared insights from her recent experience at the World Hemp Forum in France, where she discussed advancements in long fiber technology and France's leadership in hemp fiber production for various applications, including construction and textiles.
Ms. Nutra elaborated on her company's efforts to integrate hemp into their textile products, emphasizing the sustainable practices they are adopting in collaboration with local communities in northern Thailand. She highlighted the potential for hemp to replace less sustainable materials in the fashion industry and the importance of traceability in the supply chain.
As the conversation progressed, we explored the challenges and opportunities in scaling hemp cultivation and processing, particularly in Europe and Thailand. We discussed the need for better infrastructure and machinery to support the hemp industry, as well as the importance of separating the industrial aspects of hemp from the cannabinoid side to foster growth in textiles and other applications.
The episode concluded with an engaging Q&A session, where we addressed questions about supply chain management, decortication processes, and the potential for repurposing existing cotton machinery for hemp processing. Overall, it was a fruitful discussion that underscored the global demand for hemp and the collaborative efforts needed to build a thriving industry. Thank you to all our guests and attendees for making this session a success!
Stay tuned for more live recordings from the third annual Asia International Hemp Expo
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends. I'm glad you could attend. Again, you are listening to the Let's Talk Hemp podcast. I am your host, Morris Beagle. Welcome to the show.
undefined: Hey, what's happening, y'all? How are we doing today? All right. Welcome to the Let's Talk Hemp Live podcast here at the third annual Asia International Hemp Expo. Thank all of you for attending. And thanks to the organization of everybody here, the Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association and Sita.
undefined: Dita, Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association, and I'm very honored to join this special session, the podcast together with Mr. Morris. Let's talk hemp.
undefined: We're going to talk some hemp. And so it's great to have Didi as my co-host. And we have a couple of awesome guests. We've got Rachele here from Italy and a member of FIHO, which is the Federation of International Hemp Organizations, and EHA, which is the European Industrial Hemp Association. So welcome.
: Thank you. I'm happy to be here also in the talk for Hansa and please, let's do it.
undefined: And also we have our honor Thai guest that joining us. She's from the company that's one of the pioneers for the hentai style in Thailand. So I have Miss Nutra here.
undefined: Hello everyone, my name is Lupa. I'm from Earth Quality Studios and I hope that this morning you already seen our mini fashion show and the fashion show will come up again after the talk today.
undefined: After this talk there will be another fashion show with the new collection from Earth Quality.
undefined: Oh great, before we get going I want to throw out a couple of thank yous to my typical show sponsors for Left Stock Amp. I've got a a media platform called Let's Talk Imp Media at letstalkimp.com. I've been doing this podcast now for like six, seven years. I started this platform back in 2015, but a new sponsor that jumped on back in September, Her Many Voices, hermanyvoices.org, amazing global organization where indigenous wisdom meets grassroots activism to create a better world for all of God's children. wonderful and then also um there's a group called toasty hemp which i'm going to show this right here so this is a brand new hemp blended shirt that's made in pakistan for all my pakistani friends that are here in the audience wow go pakistan so uh yeah wonderful work yeah a friend of mine in um in new jersey he's got a company called toasty hemp this is 45 hemp and 55 recycled polyester and they feel awesome they print great I've had tons of him shirts over the years and I really like this blend and I think that Pat and Sam's got a great opportunity. He's a huge textiles industry there. We're here to talk about all the things that we could do globally together. Obviously we're in Thailand. We want to see Thailand excel and lead Asia and collaborate with the rest of the world. We've got a great international audience here and we're all here to build this together because him's going to help humanity and help the world heal. The world's going to be fine without us. I mean, I don't think that the planet really cares for humans that much at this point, but we need to start stewarding a little bit better.
undefined: Yeah, we need to start to be aware, and HMP is the solution.
undefined: HMP is the solution. Yes. And so this panel is about fiber, and we've got a couple of really knowledgeable people that know fiber. And I want to start with Raquel, who was just in France for the World HMP Forum. And France is one of the leaders, and has been for a long time, when it comes to fiber production for construction materials, the paper industry, and textiles as well. And I think that they've got a new long fiber technology that's going on. So why don't you talk about that a little bit.
: Yeah. I went last week at the World End Forum, organized by the Seoul European Bouchard. It was very interesting. It's always very interesting to speak with French people because they are… French? They are French. And they began before everybody. In Europe, in Montana, they are leading the strain varieties. And for fiber, it's very interesting because I imagine, as you know, that they are big producer of fats. And now the big producer of flux, they decide to make, to have an interest in produce long fiber. That means that they are producing flux, but also long fiber with damper that is managed completely in different manner in the field. to attaching the fiber. So it's very interesting because they produce long fiber. With the decortication line, we produce short fiber, technical one. One is good for produce the sotonized fiber, the short one that you can only blend and cure is difficult to use. And the long fiber is the fine one to make a good would take time. In Italy it's completely different because they work by hand and it's completely different and you can tell us. But France is forward, it's great and it's very interesting what they do. I have my speech tomorrow afternoon on that also and I would go better in this French way to work fiber. And yes, France is big for fiber and chisel, also for construction. They are set up with all the certification, all the good way to build. They are, I had the respect of other countries in Europe. And we are looking every state in Europe are looking for France to copy so to have the first suggestion to do the same in our other European states, yeah.
undefined: Happy to hear that, that it's a progress in that sphere and also from the European side that they've been doing for the hemp fiber for so long and yeah, that's great to hear.
: Yeah, also because we cut everything on the last century because the law. So we have all other states apart France that never stop it. All of us, we have to run back to France and do again and do again. In Italy, we are completely stopped at the moment. We were the top quality fiber in the last century. Now we are not producing and we wait. We understand what we can do.
undefined: Everyone needs to catch up. Let's hear from the Thai side. This is a company that is pioneering in introducing hemp fiber into the textile. Let's hear from Ms.
undefined: Sutra. Thank you so much. My company is Thai Pathika or TTC Corporation. We have a long establishment of the textile factory in Thailand based in Rayong for more than 40 years. And together with our partner company, we are able to extend our knowledge of the hem industry to make it into the fabric and into the garment. And our small studio, a collective studio, We are very happy, we are very proud of our collections today, the hemp collections. In the old days, we used to work with recycled polyester, recycled nylon as well. And up to today, the very latest collections with the hemp fiber, we are able to apply both the woven fabric and the knit fabric. What I wear today inside is actually the knit factory. from organic cotton together with hemp blend. And from the outside, this one is the Guay Taiko Colleza together with the hemp as well. We are very happy that the collections are energetic and everyone is happy to see other collections today.
undefined: Very nice. How many hectares of hemp are you working with a year? Do you know at this point?
undefined: Very huge. Actually, our founder, Phumjari, which is right now, she has another talk at the different locations. We went to the northern of Thailand in collaboration with the Royal Project of Thailand. We see that the northern Thai grow hemp in their sustainable way, but It's because only the community, we see that the product are normally as what we see, as the very generic one, but no one has ever applied it into the manufacturing or the fashion brand. And together with the global fashion brand right now, the sustainable concept, the sustainability concept is huge. And we also considering about the regenerative, Fiber hemp would be considering as one of that. So it is the targeting fiber in terms of the character of Thailand. I'm pretty sure that it's in terms of Rye.
undefined: In terms of Rye, we will go by Rye in Thailand. But I would say that in Thailand for the industrial hemp grow, it's not that big yet. But it's been in our culture for a long time, especially on the northern part of Thailand with all the tribe people. and our royal between the ex-queens have supported the tribe to throw industrial hemp instead of the opium. Yeah, but because they do it in a sustainable way like Mr. Cha have told us, so everything is made by hand and it's like no machine and everything is just very handmade way so the the land that they grow right now it's not so big but we are extending expanding that at the moment we try to support them and maybe in the very very near future you may see Thailand expanded in the in the cultivation side.
undefined: Oh I was saying it's actually um Thaithapitha is the manufacturing of thick Thai for the global brand. So we would like this opportunity to promote the help from Thailand to the global brand as well. Our customers in the US, in the European countries right now, we try to encourage them to help having the look back to our roots. So we hope that we could kick off and we hope for the good feedback from the global brand as well.
undefined: Do you import any hemp fiber from let's say China or India or anywhere?
undefined: No, 100% locally made from China.
undefined: Is there an opportunity while you're trying to scale up your cultivation with hemp fiber to import other hemp fibers into the marketplace until then so you can start incorporating more hemp into the textile industry?
undefined: We would love that. We would love that. And we see many visitors today from many countries. We hope that we can have a talk. We have our discussions and we hope for the collaborations going forward.
undefined: Well, one thing that in the United States and in Europe as well is, you know, trying to create these import-export markets. I know that there are several companies in the United States who in the last six to eight months has made deals with China. China is actually importing fiber because they have a shortage of fiber. So there's companies in the United States that are trying to offload their fiber and China is buying that. And I think that China is also buying from Europe as well. So it's a global market. We need to utilize more and more hemp material until it can be grown and scaled locally. I think that there's again, there's opportunities internationally For export and you know that's one of the reasons that The National Industrial Hemp Council is here why we're here trying to create trade opportunities between the United States and Asia United States and Europe and Europe and South America and all this type of stuff How do we get goods flowing from you know one place to another as we scale this industry from? 500,000 global acres to 50 million global acres which it's going to take a while to get to that point but Once we do, then we're going to really have a true thriving industry with industrial hemp.
: I think nowadays we have a big demand and a little supply.
undefined: Yes. Yeah, exactly.
: So we have to grow. We have to grow. I know that America is growing faster, but really in Europe we have no material from March. Our period is September because we collect everything in summertime. So in March, we finished everything. And what we do, we have to set up facilities and grow more hemp in the field. Are you growing fiber hemp in Italy? Not really, because we have no dispatching line and decortication line. So when you have no machinery, you cannot grow.
undefined: And it seems like Italy has had kind of issues with the overall hemp side of things when it comes to flowers and CBD and all that, that's kind of taking up a lot of the oxygen in the room, so to speak, where it kind of overshadows, let's say, the fiber side and the grain side. Is that correct?
: Yes. We have a really bad politic now in Italy, so we have a problem with CBD and talk about CBD in Italy Because it's not a problem with that.
undefined: It always happens. Yeah. In many, many places for the cannabinoid side.
undefined: Yeah. Well, that's like what we were talking about on the other stage before. It's like we need to kind of make sure that we separate the chemical side of CBD and cannabinoids from the fiber side and the grain side and stuff like that, which is truly agriculture. where it's treated just like corn and soy and wheat and all these other ag crops and it doesn't get convoluted with the chemical side. And that way, you know, all these countries that want to grow their own textiles and grow building materials and have, you know, plastic alternative inputs and so forth, we'll be able to do that without having to continue to go back to talk about, oh, is it going to get you high? CBD, THC, all of it.
undefined: So the good understanding will be needed in the country to understand that what is cannabinoid side, this is the aspect of the industrial hand. And so if we look at the market and the industry, if we analyze it very clearly, you will see the very totally different part of it. And I think that, especially for the fiber, it can be go further, but we need to start to let the Agriculture will start growing like this before she was saying that need to start growing and so because the shopping of the The production at the moment the raw material and so the demand is there and the demand will be more increased That we see that clearly direction on that right Kelly there's one of your good friends in Italy Gordana from him style magazine.
undefined: Why don't you just Briefly talk a little bit about what she's doing with the hotel industry and bedding and sheets and all that but I think there's another area that you know doesn't get talked about a whole lot, but it's It's certainly something when it comes to hemp textiles that is appropriate Eva Hempa is producing sheets for bedding we say and She tried to buy the fiber from Europe Romania and France
: and it's a really interesting opportunity because tourism is tourism and sleeping in a sheet made of hemp fiber is very good. She grew up, Zoli Zoli, yeah, and she's also owner of Hemp Textile, it's a web magazine. Yeah, she works very well. Steva, Hemp, and you can see she found a very good scholar and very good timing of everything she does. Very interesting, yeah. Sailor is one of the big opportunities, yeah.
undefined: Well, we don't have a lot of time on the session. Do we want to open it up to any questions in the audience? Does anybody have any questions out there they'd like to ask?
undefined: Please, yeah.
: Do you have any questions?
undefined: Unprepared for audience questions.
undefined: You're saying that now we're growing and trying to grow more and more hemp. What are your guidelines for good supply chain set up for hemp production and making it up to the, like to the textile where it is being produced or where it is going to get processed?
: About the supply chain.
undefined: So how to match all the supply chain together?
undefined: Yeah, how do you make sure that when it is cultivated from the farm to the place where it is being used, where it is being produced, how we make sure that the processing line is set up well.
undefined: Now you're talking about the standard and the traceability?
undefined: Yeah. Yeah, well, there's not that many countries that have got a supply chain set up at this point. You know, China obviously does. Europe, depending on what country, has got somewhat of a supply chain for textiles. The United States, we're still trying to figure that out ourselves. I mean, China is really the only one that has that set up. You do, you have to, first you got to have the right genetics. You have to have the deportation line. You have to have additional downstream processing to decum. and cognize the hemp fiber so it's spinnable. Once you get to a spinnable fiber, then it can go basically into any sort of textile, apparel side of manufacturing process. There's a lot of room to build out that infrastructure. It's really not in place in many areas around the world at this point in time.
undefined: So I would like to add for the question in terms of the fashion industry these days, there is the importance of the traceability document. So as in the morning, I hear, I see the slide from Control Union from PXI Exchange. Right now, the PXI Exchange traceability documents may be like in the recycle material, recycle claim standard. and the organic cotton standard. I hope that in the future, as the request from the global brand, there will be the preservative system setting up and you are able to track from the farmers, from the thinner, to the shipper, to the manufacturing, from the spinning, until the end as the brand and the consumer. I think in these days, this is starting to be as the common way as the global brand tracing on the supply chain. And I hope that very soon it could be applied to the hemp as well. As we are in the hemp industry right now, we will be prepared for that situation coming very soon.
undefined: And mentioning Textile Exchange, they put out a report within the last 12 months that was really hemp specific and talked about all kinds of things from being able to grow it sustainably and so forth and how it can be implemented into the current system and Textile Exchange has been doing a lot of really good work.
: In Europe, we are working on it. And for the long fiber, when I saw the yarn, I said, wow, fantastic, you are on the market. And they say, no, because we have to guarantee the same quality. And now we are not there yet. So this is for long fiber in Europe. This is the situation. So, because every time the fiber is different, so it's not simple. Once they did, they did that. So, we have to arrive there again, but we are working on it, yeah.
undefined: Got another question over here.
undefined: My question is regarding specifically decortication. In Pakistan, we have a robust textile industry already. So we are very familiar with working cotton. We know how to get cotton from field to finished product very well. But we are still figuring out how to do that with hemp. So I guess my question would be, aside from decortication, which I know is a completely individual step, how much of the cotton refining process can be used in hemp refining. For example, once we get the hemp out of the field, let's say we decorticate it, and then to refine it further, for example, I have this sample here. This is from Pakistan. This is a non-bleached, organic hemp, cottonized hemp. For us, it seems like we have a lot of the cotton machinery. Can that be used for hemp refinement as well? Or do you have to get a whole new system to not only decorticate, but then scutch and, you know, the whole ginning process that's done for cotton. Can some of that be used with hemp as well? Or do you have to have a whole new system A to Z?
undefined: That's a good question. I know that there's several groups in the United States that are taking old cotton gins and converting them into hemp gins. And so I think that repurposing some of that machinery may be able to get you so far down the road. I don't know if they can get you to all the way you need to be because I think the lignin content in the hemp, I don't even know if cotton has any lignin to speak of. Is that correct? So, you know, that's an important process of being able to delignify or de-gump all the fibering. And there's several deportication companies, primarily in Europe. Paytham makes deportication equipment specifically for textiles. So does Pimifa out of Germany. And there's other… Creeps, I think, is making specifically specific to portication and downstream equipment, you know, for the textile industry. But I don't believe that you're going to be able to get all the way there. It's just your typical cotton processing. Clyde might know back here, his dad's from Fairfiber in the United States. He's been doing all kinds of experimentation and they've got a company out of North Carolina and working with the University of North Carolina. to work on being able to make sustainable fiber right there in North Carolina. In turn, we'll start shipping to South America and to Japan and other places around the world. And I don't know if you guys are, how much additional equipment outside of, you know, cotton equipment that you guys are using there. But anyway, this guy back here, Clyde, smile, yep. He might be able to add to some of that. His dad is what at the forefront in the United States of trying to maneuver around Yep, yeah, but it's it's short father.
undefined: Yeah Can I ask you about the recording do you mean like the DNA extraction as well like from the hemp fiber from which region or do you mean that from organic cotton blend with for the facilities of the ceiling? Which one do you mean?
undefined: The decortication which separates the shive and the fiber, that I know is a very specific piece of machinery. So I was just curious if Let's say we were to start some sort of a fiber industry. Aside from the decodicator, would we need to get other equipment as well? Or could we just get a decodicator and then once it's separated, use our existing cotton equipment to then produce a cotton fiber?
undefined: I have to say no. Well, let me say like this. Our In this area, the countries, in the tropical countries, we, apart from hemp, we also have other sustainable fiber, and by the size of the fiber, it's quite big. So once you put it in the spinning machine, especially for the natural-based fiber, they have the different length of the fiber. So with that expertise, they are able to blend it in a positive way. But if the factory tends to do hot stone blend fiber only, the factory inside the spinning must be very clean. And this could be considered a contamination. So it depends on the type of the machinery on the spinner that you're working with. In the Southeast Asia, we are the tropical countries, so we are getting used to this type of the spinning machinery.
undefined: This is some aspect that should have to consider. Yeah. Yeah, the area of the material and the processing in that particular location is affecting the outcome of the product.
undefined: Well, is that it? Any more questions? I think our time is about up. And so I do want to thank everybody here for joining this session. I want to thank Didi, my esteemed co-host, and my wonderful guests for participating in the very first live Let's Talk Kemp podcast from the Asia International HIPAA Expo.
undefined: Thank you very much for having us and this is a wonderful session. Thank you everyone here.
undefined: Thank you.
undefined: Give yourself a round of applause.