What Can The U.S. Hemp Industry Learn from Europe
This week on the podcast we talk to Robin Destiche and Corbett Miteff, two founding partners of KonopiUS, a company that sells seeds and consulting services.
KonopiUS specializes in seeds from Europe, importing genetics that work best for North America.
Miteff said the company is a conglomerate of three other businesses that were exporting European genetics to the U.S.
We \u201cdecided to kind of quit working against one another and try to make the industry successful. So we we became partners and started KonopiUS,\u201d he said.
Destiche and Miteff teamed up with Hana Gabrielov\xe1, a longtime advocate and entrepreneur in the European hemp industry, and Bert James, an agronomist from North Carolina.
\u201cIt became very apparent that working together is clearly more advantageous than working apart,\u201d Destiche said.
Founded in 2021, the company has farmers growing its seeds in about 30 states, mostly in the north.
\u201cSome states grow better than others,\u201d Destiche said. \u201cWe do work with European genetics, and their home latitude is a bit more north. We have found a lot of success operating 37/38 (degrees) north.\u201d
As you go farther south, the days become shorter, and because hemp is photosensitive, these European varieties don\u2019t do as well in southern climes.
Miteff and Destiche both lived in Europe for several years and have close ties with the European hemp industry.
In this podcast interview they talk about the difference between the European approach to hemp and the American approach.
The Europeans are more conservative in their business development, Destiche said.
\u201cIt took them a number of years in Europe, two decades really, to develop the amount of processors that they have now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the U.S. is probably going to have double the amount of processors next year.\u201d
This wide-ranging interview explores many topics, from the history of the hemp industry in France to the future of the Farm Bill here in the U.S., including a look at how KonopiUS supports its farmers with genetics and agronomy support.
\u201cNot only do we try to sell the seed, but we also make sure that the farmer\u2019s successful and has a successful grow and sells his crop and makes a profit,\u201d Miteff said, \u201cbecause at the end of the day, if the farmer isn\u2019t successful, then we\u2019re really not successful.\u201d
Learn more about KonopiUS:
https://www.konopius.com/
Go see Common Ground
Thanks to our Sponsors!
IND HEMP
Mpactful Ventures