Industrial hemp value chain in Austria is underdeveloped and has a large growth potential.
What do we mean by that?
In order to get an idea of the extent of the potential of the industrial hemp value chain, we can illustrate the conditions in comparison with the cultivated areas of conventionally grown agricultural products;
According to Statistics Austria, the following distribution of arable land in 2022 was:
(Total arable land area is 1.32 million):
- 754,135 hectares of grain
- 18,930 hectares of grain legumes (peas, beans, lupins, lentils, etc.)
- 55,511 hectares of root crops (potatoes, sugar beets)
- 191,132 hectares of oil crops (sunflower, soybeans, poppies, rapeseed, oil pumpkin)
- 225,148 hectares of field fodder production (corn, clover, alfalfa…)
- 276 hectares of hops
- 1,589 hectares of linseed (linseed oil)
- 49,125 hectares of fallow land
And just 1343 hectares of hemp in total (around 0,101% of the whole arable land)
There are around 70 types of main crops that are cultivated here, and hemp is one of them.
With it`s late flowering it is a reasonable biodiversity supporting crop, zero pesticides, low fertilizer, low water consumption and low maintenance during the growth contribute to it`s good GHG profile (greenhouse gas footprint).
Every day, around 12 hectares of arable land are converted and later developed. That’s 4,380 hectares of land annually. So you can say that the entire hemp cultivation area in Austria is covered with concrete three times a year. That’s surprising.
Hypothetically if nothing would change, in 100 years the covered area would be 438,000 hectares, which corresponds to a third of all arable land. It must be clear to everyone that this pace of concreting is seriously unhealthy. These numbers make it easier to understand the hostility between the agricultural and construction industries.
However, in Hempstatic we are convinced that the industrial symbiosis between the agricultural and construction sectors is very important for the bio-based future and a functional bioeconomy. And we are all the more pleased that we are working on CO2-storing, sustainable regenerative building materials and are thus already laying the crucial foundation for the bioeconomy future.
Looking at the numbers, it is comprehensible that the industrial hemp cultivation in Austria still has a lot of potential for growth! Interested in hemp bioeconomy and bio-based building materials?
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