Are long-fiber hemp fabrics history?

Shandong hemp textile factory, Kina

Since the introduction of industrial hemp to the West in the 1990s several European and American pilot projects have started to try to manufacture strong and dirt-repellent fabrics of hemp without much success. There are several reasons, including agronomic factors, and that growing and preparing long hemp fibers is a small-scale, manual process that cannot be easily adapted for machine production.

Rob inspecting vines

What you may not know is that during the same period when after many years of ban in the West hemp became popular, European investors traveled to China to increase the factory production of strong and environmentally friendly hemp fabrics. One consultant in such coop-eration was our ethnobotanist Robert C. Clarke, who as an agronomist worked with one of the first factories, the Dongping mill in Shandong Province, his experiences of local hemp cultivation in the region can be shared in this article, or send us and e-mail to Skoglund.Clarke@gmail.com

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267223338_Hemp_Cannabis_sativa_L_Cultivation_in_the_Tai%27an_District_of_Shandong_Province_Peoples_Republic_of_China/figures?lo=1

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Most hemp fabrics are still manufactured in China, but they are usually cottonized, a process that breaks down the fibers and makes them weak and soft to resemble cotton fibers that can be blended with other short fibers. In other words, a fragile material far from the legendary strong and dirt-repellent pure hemp fabrics that were manufactured for millen-nia from East Asia to Europe. Fabrics of long-fiber hemp are rare today, found and produced only in a few East Asian cultures.

During Rob’s work in Shandong, long-fiber hemp was produced from landrace varieties grown nearby. Annually, the farmers processed 625 tons of bast fiber strips that were sold to the factory. For several years, the mill manufactured high-quality hemp fabrics from long bast fiber strips, and within their product range was this hemp sleeping mats.

During hot humid summers people slept atop these cooling mats, and this item is from a limited collection, intended as a gift, and packaged in a cardboard box with explanatory text. We encourage a resurgence of hemp textile production, but this unique and highly collectable pure hemp fabric will never be industrial produced again.

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