Episode Details

This week on the Hemp Show we talk to Maciej Kowalski, founder and CEO of Kombinat Konopni, a hemp company in Northern Poland.

We hear how he built a vertically integrated company — from planting, harvesting, processing, all the way to manufacturing finished goods — and why he would rather control the system rather than rely on supply chains that don't fully exist.

"Everyone is saying about the need to build a supply chain. Yeah, that's one approach. The other is be your own supply chain," Kowaski said.

His pragmatism is often guided by a healthy skepticism.

"If you have a dozen intermediaries between you and the manufacturer of raw materials, there is a geometrically raising probability of someone in this chain being not honest."

We talk about his farming practices and why his farmers do not need anything more than a rake and a baler to harvest the hemp stalks, because they practice "winter retting" where the hemp is left standing throughout the winter.

By spring the stalks are brittle enough they can be knocked down and windrowed with a standard rake and then baled like any other crop.

"Just leave the plants throughout the winter in the field — they're just going to separate on their own. If it sounds magical, it's because it is." Kowalski said.

How does this affect the finished fiber in terms of strength and durability?

He said winter retted hemp is slightly over-retted, so it is weaker but softer, which to Kowalski is a feature not a bug.

"The biggest difficulty of introducing or reintroducing hemp as an apparel grade textile is its stiffness. So if you make it slightly weaker, but softer at the same time — that's good."

We also talk about his company's recent listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange — and why it wasn't about raising money.

"We made a promise to our investors, six, five, four years ago when we were raising money, that one day you will be able to buy or sell those shares on a stock exchange," he said.

"So even if I am not having anything out of it right now, it's like an essential part of keeping your word, which has two parts of it. One is just being a decent man. And the other part is being a businessperson and keeping your promises is good for business long term."

kombinatkonopny.pl

Maciej Kowalski on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maciejkowalskihemp/

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