Sud Champagne is the benchmark for hemp production and processing
Our territory is a pioneer and European leader in the production and use of this virtuous plant.
It all started in the 1960s with the maintenance of hemp cultivation for the paper industry. But it was especially in 1973, with the desire of Aube farmers to create a hemp processing tool (the cooperative La Chanvrière de l’Aube) that it really started. It was then necessary to launch innovations in all directions: agronomy, agricultural machinery, primary processing, establishment of standards to guarantee regularity in the quality of supplies, development of innovative composite materials and new processes for paper, construction, automotive, textiles, food, etc.
The story continues… for the past decade, Troyes Champagne Metropole has identified industrial hemp cultivation as an excellence sector, bringing added value and employment. A local dynamic has been established to bring together the various actors of the hemp sector to support its development.
Today, the assessment is an undeniable success.
The cooperative “La Chanvrière” is the leading French actor with 50% of the national production
In 2020, its 440 producers cultivated 9,600 ha of the 17,000 ha in France. A new investment of €25 million, in a state-of-the-art processing tool, will allow processing 100,000 tonnes of hemp per year. The territory has thus acquired the largest European capacity for the primary processing of hemp. This step is essential to industrially valorize the different parts of the plant.
Other local actors have complementary capacities in terms of sorting, calibration, etc., allowing full exploitation of the plant: from seed to stem.
FRD is the gateway to new “Hemp” developments in France
Another key factor in the development of this sector is the Fibre Research and Development laboratory, established in 2007 at the heart of the Troyes campus technopole. Specialising in natural fibres, it works to create scientific and technological bridges between the raw material “agricultural hemp” and its use in an industrial process. It is at the heart of the feat of bringing a plant, which by nature is unique and different, into a standardised material integrable into various industrial processes. The Ministry of Research, in 2019, recognised the excellence of FRD’s work by labelling it “Technological Resource Centre”. The Aube can be proud to have on its territory the only Technical Resource Centre dedicated to the valorisation of agricultural plant fibres.
Thus, big names in the industry have been able to integrate hemp into their products like IKEA, Faurecia, Blédina, Bodyshop, and Decathlon, Garnier, Danone.
Troyes has become the French territory of hemp bioeconomy
In 2014, the hemp sector was structured around the Hemp Construction Collective in Grand Est. Faced with the enthusiasm for this plant, new markets quickly emerged, outlining the perspective of a future European Hemp Pole. This project is being built with the support of Troyes Champagne Metropole, the Grand Est Region, and the European Union.
This unique cluster in France federates, organizes and meets the expectations of various actors to develop hemp markets. It is open to all actors seeking technical and economic solutions based on hemp.
As an example, textiles having a special place in the territory, the Pole works on establishing an industrial hemp textile sector to realize the entire production chain up to the yarn, on French soil. The challenge is to obtain 100% hemp textile yarn.
Troyes Champagne Metropole supports the physical structuring of a territorial hemp biorefinery. This ecosystem can now welcome new activities dedicated to hemp under the best conditions. Simultaneously, a zone dedicated to the bioeconomy will be set up for this purpose.
“South Champagne benefits from the structuring and development work of a real hemp sector, carried out for many years by La Chanvrière and Troyes Champagne Metropole. The creation of the European hemp pole finally makes visible the Territory’s capacity to offer turnkey solutions to industrialists wishing to use hemp. It is a unique and remarkable tool for organizing and federating the actors of the sector: from the field to the finished product. Business Sud Champagne has joined the Pole to act as the facilitator of the new activities implementation cell. This is how we are already supporting several feasibility studies for the implementation of industrial projects using hemp in their process.”
– Philippe Charmont, Head of Business and Territorial Development at Business Sud Champagne.
