INTERVIEW: Maximiliano Baranoff is Director of Innovation & New Companies at Argentina-based IHS Grupo, the place he leads strategic initiatives throughout seed improvement, varietal validation, industrial hemp worth chain design, and market creation. He has labored on subject trials, processing fashions, and early-stage trade structuring throughout Latin America, collaborating with analysis establishments, personal buyers, and authorities stakeholders. Baranoff’s work focuses on constructing scalable hemp techniques from genetics and cultivation via processing, commercialization, and export improvement, with an emphasis on regional competitiveness, bioeconomy fashions, and sustainable industrial development. He’s based mostly in Spain.
HempToday: Everybody says “seed is foundational.” What particularly is damaged in the present day in hemp seed techniques?
Maximiliano Baranoff: The trade usually treats seed as a commodity enter, when in actuality seed is strategic infrastructure. With out dependable genetics, each different a part of the worth chain turns into dearer and fewer predictable.
At the moment we nonetheless face three structural issues: inconsistent genetics, restricted regional adaptation information, and certification techniques that weren’t designed for hemp’s present industrial makes use of.
Many growers are shopping for seed, however not all the time shopping for certainty. And certainty is what processors, buyers, and regulators finally want.
HT: How far-off is Argentina from having dependable, licensed seed at a business scale?
MB: Argentina has the agronomic potential, scientific expertise, and environmental range to turn out to be extremely aggressive in hemp seed manufacturing. What is required now could be execution: clear regulatory pathways, multiplication capability, subject validation, and demand alerts from downstream industries.
Meet Maximiliano Baranoff at this yr’s EIHA Convention Session:
Seeds, Genetics & THC: Constructing the Sector from the Floor Up
June 11-12, 2026 | Poznań, Poland.
We’ve already moved past pilots and comparative trials into early business plantings. The following section is scaling consistency—dependable seed volumes, steady efficiency throughout areas, and certification techniques aligned with market wants. Progress can speed up considerably via sensible partnerships fairly than relying solely on long-term breeding cycles.
A very good instance is the work we’ve been growing via the Polish Hemp Program, targeted on native seed multiplication and varietal adaptation beneath Argentine situations. This method permits confirmed European genetics to be evaluated, multiplied, and built-in into native manufacturing techniques now—creating quick pathways for cultivation and industrial use whereas home breeding packages proceed to mature.
That issues as a result of worth chains usually are not constructed from the highest down. To strengthen seed techniques upstream, first we should reveal actual demand downstream—in meals elements, fiber purposes, animal diet, and different industrial markets. As soon as markets reply, genetics, certification, and funding are inclined to scale a lot quicker.
HT: What have your subject trials proven about varietal efficiency in Latin American situations?
MB: The primary lesson is that imported genetics don’t routinely turn out to be profitable native genetics. Latitude, photoperiod, rainfall patterns, soil varieties, and operational practices all affect efficiency.
Some varieties present wonderful vegetative development however poor flowering timing. Others generate biomass however inconsistent fiber high quality. In grain manufacturing, maturity timing, standability, and harvest effectivity turn out to be decisive.
Our conclusion is easy: native validation is the bridge between promising genetics and bankable manufacturing.
HT: Is the trade underestimating the time it takes to stabilize genetics for fiber and grain?
MB: Sure, considerably. Markets usually transfer quicker than biology.
Strong breeding packages require a number of cycles of choice, environmental testing, trait consistency, and seed multiplication. For fiber and grain, you’re breeding not just for agronomic efficiency, however for industrial efficiency.
Uniform stem traits, harvestability, grain retention, fiber conduct, and processing compatibility all matter. That takes time, self-discipline, and capital.
HT: Can Latin America realistically compete on seed, or will it stay depending on Europe and China?
MB: Latin America can completely compete, however not by attempting to copy Europe or China. It should construct its personal strategic function.
The area presents counter-season multiplication benefits, various agro-climatic zones, aggressive manufacturing prices, and rising technical capability. That creates alternatives in seed improve, regional adaptation, and future export packages.
Europe and China will stay main world leaders, however Latin America can turn out to be a worthwhile complementary platform inside a extra diversified world hemp seed system.
HT: Are present certification techniques match for objective, or do they must be redesigned for hemp?
MB: Most techniques want modernization. Many certification frameworks have been created for standard crops with mature breeding histories and less complicated market constructions. Hemp is completely different.
At the moment certification should tackle varietal identification, THC compliance, end-use segmentation, traceability, and fast innovation cycles.
We’d like techniques that protect rigor whereas turning into quicker, science-based, and extra internationally harmonized.
HT: How do you stability breeding for yield vs. processing high quality in fiber purposes?
MB: Yield alone could be deceptive. Excessive biomass solely issues if processors can effectively convert it into worthwhile output.
The long run isn’t most tonnage—it’s usable tonnage. Which means combining subject productiveness with fiber size, bast share, uniformity, moisture conduct, and compatibility with industrial tools.
The strongest varieties might be these designed with each farmers and processors in thoughts.
HT: Should you needed to prioritize one breakthrough within the subsequent 3–5 years, what would transfer the trade quickest?
MB: A globally trusted pipeline of licensed, purpose-built seed.
If growers can entry dependable genetics matched to fiber, grain, or meals purposes—with predictable compliance and efficiency—the whole trade accelerates. Farmers achieve confidence, processors safe feedstock, financiers cut back danger, and governments see legitimacy.
Seed is the place scale begins.
