Hemp-It: How a French Seed Propagator Meets the Demands of a Growing Industry

In this week’s episode of the Industrial Hemp Podcast, Lancaster Farming talks with Jean-Eric Ponthou from Hemp-It and Robin Destiche from KonopiUS.

Ponthou is the manager of sales and development at Hemp-It, a French company established in 1965 that produces certified industrial hemp seeds.

“It’s the only company in France producing certified industrial seeds at international standards,” Ponthou said.

Located about 180 miles southwest of Paris, the company has 30 employees at the headquarters and works with a co-op network of nearly 150 farmers to produce about 2,000 tons of hemp seed annually.

“It’s a co-op company,” Ponthou said, “which means every farmer has one share in the company, so we’re all equal.”

He said Hemp-It produces about 15 different varieties of industrial hemp, and each of these varieties targets some specific market segment: grain, hurd or fiber.

According to a 2023 report by Textile Exchange, France is the largest producer of hemp fiber by volume in the world.

Destiche is one of the founders of KonopiUS, a seed distribution and agronomy company in Virginia, and he has been working with Hemp-It for several years.

Destiche explained how Europe operates from a database of approved varieties, varieties that have already been tested for morphology, stability and THC.

“I think currently there’s over 100 hemp varieties that are registered,” he said.

Hemp-It has also developed several varieties of hemp that contain no THC.

“This way, we open the gate to the food industry, because we can guarantee to get them the lowest the rate of THC as possible,” Ponthou said.

THC is the naturally occurring chemical compound in the hemp plant which at higher levels cause the psychoactive affects associated with marijuana.

THC-free varieties of hemp grain might be a way forward for hemp grain producers who took issue with last week’s historic vote by the American Association of Feed Control Officials to allow hemp seed meal as an ingredient for feed for laying hens.

Various international groups said the THC thresholds in the feed definition were too low and would be hard to reach.

Maybe THC-free grain is the way to go.

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