The 2026 Senate inquiry makes the case that Australia’s hemp alternative is not going to be unlocked by hectares and processing capability alone. The lacking piece is reliable finish markets – merchandise individuals really specify, purchase and use.
Margaret River Hemp Co | August 2026 | Half 2 of the Australia’s Hemp Alternative sequence
A requirement-led hemp trade begins with a transparent use, then builds the manufacturing, processing and rising capability wanted to provide it.
| Australia does not simply want a method for rising and processing extra hemp. It wants a method for utilizing extra hemp. |
Australia is aware of how you can develop issues.
We all know how you can farm at scale, adapt crops to tough circumstances, construct agricultural provide chains and take Australian merchandise to worldwide markets.
So after we speak about the way forward for hemp in Australia, it’s tempting to give attention to the plain questions: what number of hectares can we develop, which varieties carry out finest, the place ought to processing services be constructed, and the way a lot fibre, hurd or grain can we produce?
They’re necessary questions. However the 2026 Senate inquiry factors to an much more necessary one: what are we really going to make use of all that hemp for?
The Senate report places the market query entrance and centre
Chapter 6 of Alternatives for the event of a hemp trade in Australia is titled “Selling a marketplace for hemp”. That issues. The report doesn’t deal with demand as an afterthought to farming and processing; it treats market improvement as one of many circumstances required for the trade to develop.
The committee heard that buyers can see hemp’s potential however stay cautious when there are not any constant finish markets. It additionally heard that growers want to know the possible finish use earlier than they plant, as a result of totally different markets require totally different varieties, specs and manufacturing choices.
That adjustments the sequence. As an alternative of asking growers to plant extra hemp and hoping a market seems later, Australia must establish credible makes use of, construct clients round them, after which scale the availability chain to fulfill that demand.
Rising an trade backwards is dangerous
Rising agricultural industries usually start with manufacturing: develop the crop first, construct the processing capability, then discover the shopper. For hemp, that strategy carries a big threat.
A subject of hemp might have dozens of potential purposes, however potential doesn’t pay a farmer. A processor can not survive on a listing of issues hemp might turn out to be. And producers can not design companies round supplies for which there isn’t any dependable market.
The Senate inquiry repeatedly comes again to this industrial actuality. Farmers are unlikely to maneuver useful land, water and labour away from established crops except there’s a clear path to profitability. Buyers are unlikely to fund equipment with out clients. Producers want reliable materials specs and quantity. Every a part of the chain relies on the one after it.
That’s the reason the higher query is just not merely, ‘How will we develop extra hemp?’ It’s, ‘Who’s going to make use of it, for what, and sometimes sufficient to create an actual market?’
A market wants to return earlier than hundreds of thousands of hectares
There’s a tendency in rising industries to have a good time acreage. Extra hectares planted seems like progress. However a big crop with no purchaser could make an trade weaker, not stronger. Oversupply pushes costs down, product sits in storage, farmers lose confidence, and the next season fewer individuals plant.
The report offers a helpful instance. One proposed fibre market – agricultural weed matting – might require 1000’s of hectares of hemp. That seems like an infinite alternative till you think about the opposite fractions created from the identical crop. If the fibre has a purchaser however the ensuing hurd doesn’t, the economics are nonetheless incomplete.
That’s the necessary lesson: a viable hemp trade can’t be constructed round one thrilling product at a time. The entire crop wants pathways into actual markets, and people markets must develop alongside manufacturing.
Hemp does not have a scarcity of potential makes use of
That is the place hemp turns into each thrilling and tough. The Senate report identifies potential purposes throughout an unusually broad vary of industries: meals and oils, textiles and paper, insulation and constructing supplies, composites, horticultural merchandise, packaging, biochar and extra.
The issue is just not developing with issues hemp may do. The problem is popping these potentialities into merchandise individuals specify, manufacture, inventory, buy and use repeatedly.
That’s market improvement. And it might be a very powerful piece of Australia’s hemp technique.
What actual end-market improvement seems to be like
| Potential market | What repeat demand seems to be like | What it could actually unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Architects, builders and public initiatives specifying examined hemp-based supplies. | Constant demand for hurd, panels, insulation and related manufacturing. |
| Horticulture | Farms, vineyards and landscapers reordering mulch, weed-control or different appropriate merchandise. | Extra shops for crop fractions and stronger whole-crop economics. |
| Meals | Retailers and meals producers constructing hemp seed, oil or protein into repeat product traces. | Extra reliable grain markets and stronger client familiarity with hemp. |
| Textiles & composites | Producers ordering fibre to outlined high quality and efficiency specs. | A clearer case for fibre processing, product improvement and home value-adding. |
Advertising hemp means greater than promoting it
Once we say Australia must get higher at advertising and marketing hemp, we aren’t merely speaking about commercials. We imply constructing a market.
Which means architects specifying hemp supplies. Builders figuring out how you can work with them. Retailers understanding hemp merchandise nicely sufficient to inventory them. Producers figuring out they’ll order materials to a constant specification. Authorities departments contemplating hemp merchandise when buying supplies. Farmers figuring out what their crop can be used for earlier than they plant it. And customers understanding why they may select a hemp product over another.
A hemp product nonetheless has to resolve an issue. Being made out of hemp is just not sufficient.
Begin with the shopper, then work backwards
One of the vital helpful classes from the inquiry is that the trade must suppose from the completed product backwards.
Take building. As an alternative of starting with, ‘We’ve hemp hurd – what can we make with it?’, the higher questions are: what supplies are builders in search of, the place are current merchandise underperforming, what efficiency requirements should be met, and what would permit an architect or builder to specify a hemp-based product with confidence?
As soon as these questions are answered, producers know what they should make. Processors know the fabric specs producers require. Growers can then choose varieties and manufacturing strategies suited to these specs.
The market begins pulling hemp by means of the availability chain as a substitute of producers attempting to push hemp right into a market after it has already been grown.
Authorities can turn out to be a type of clients
One of the vital sensible proposals within the report is Advice 7, which asks the Division of Finance to determine a course of for explicitly contemplating hemp-based merchandise in authorities procurement insurance policies and plans.
That might matter enormously. Authorities is a serious purchaser of infrastructure, buildings, landscaping supplies, furnishings, textiles and different merchandise. The inquiry even discusses hemp-based sound attenuation obstacles because the type of utility that may very well be thought of for public infrastructure the place a product meets the required specs.
The necessary level is just not that authorities can purchase hemp just because it’s hemp. Hemp-based merchandise ought to nonetheless must show their efficiency, worth and suitability for the job.
But when credible Australian hemp merchandise are by no means thought of in procurement, the trade loses one of the direct methods to construct repeat demand. A number of giant, reliable markets can do extra to stimulate an trade than 1000’s of hectares planted speculatively.
Demand creates confidence. Confidence encourages manufacturing. Manufacturing helps processing. Processing creates a marketplace for growers. The chain begins to maneuver.
Requirements are a part of market improvement too
It might sound unusual to explain requirements as market improvement, however they’re intently related. You can not create severe demand for a fabric if clients are not sure how you can use it, certify it or examine it with options.
That is significantly apparent in building. The Senate report identifies hemp-based constructing supplies as one of many trade’s most promising alternatives, whereas additionally noting that uncertainty round requirements and approvals continues to restrict adoption.
If builders, architects, insurers and certifiers have to resolve the identical technical questions from scratch on each venture, hemp stays tough to specify. That’s the reason the committee additionally recommends work on constructing requirements, hearth testing, carbon measurement and formal recognition of hemp-based supplies.
Requirements flip an fascinating materials into one thing a procurement officer, architect or builder can really buy. That’s how area of interest merchandise turn out to be markets.
We want Australians to know what hemp can do
There’s one other market-development problem that’s much less technical. Most Australians merely have no idea how broad hemp’s purposes are.
They could know hemp as a seed, a shirt, skincare or maybe hempcrete. Far fewer individuals see these merchandise as elements of the identical agricultural worth chain.
That’s one thing our trade has to enhance. We have to cease advertising and marketing hemp solely to individuals who already like hemp. As an alternative, we have to speak to individuals who want higher constructing supplies, producers in search of pure fibres, meals companies in search of plant-based elements, farmers in search of rotational choices, designers in search of new biomaterials, and organisations attempting to cut back reliance on petrochemical-based inputs.
The dialog turns into much more helpful when hemp stops being the vacation spot and begins being one potential resolution.
What we have now discovered in Margaret River
We’ve seen this problem firsthand. Our journey with hemp has taken us by means of retail, meals, skincare, textiles, farming, processing and constructing supplies. Every step has strengthened the identical lesson: making one thing potential doesn’t robotically create a marketplace for it.
We established Margaret River Hemp Processing as a result of native processing is crucial if Western Australian hemp goes to turn out to be helpful industrial materials. However having fibre and hurd out there is just one piece of the equation. Somebody nonetheless has to make use of them.
Our proof to the Senate inquiry made the identical level. We supported larger authorities funding for market improvement alongside modernising equipment and supporting processing capability. These issues belong collectively.
That can also be why we maintain speaking a couple of farm-to-finished hemp worth chain. The crop issues. Processing issues. Manufacturing issues. However the completed use is what offers each earlier stage financial goal.
Think about if hemp turned atypical
The actual success of Australia’s hemp trade is not going to be measured by how usually we speak about hemp. It will likely be measured by how usually individuals use it with out considering twice.
- A builder selecting hemp insulation as a result of it meets the job specification.
- A council contemplating a hemp-based landscaping product as a result of it performs and matches procurement necessities.
- A producer ordering Australian fibre for a composite panel.
- A meals firm incorporating Australian hemp seed into an current product line.
- An architect specifying hemp-lime partitions with confidence within the testing and requirements behind them.
- A client selecting a natural-fibre garment as a result of it performs nicely and lasts.
At that time, hemp stops being an rising curiosity. It turns into an trade.
So what ought to an Australian hemp technique really do?
Rising extra hemp must be a part of the plan. So ought to higher processing infrastructure. However neither ought to occur in isolation.
A severe nationwide technique also needs to give attention to:
- figuring out high-volume and high-value Australian finish markets;
- serving to producers develop commercially helpful hemp merchandise;
- creating recognised specs, testing pathways and requirements;
- supporting demonstration initiatives that show merchandise in real-world circumstances;
- together with appropriate hemp merchandise in authorities procurement consideration;
- educating builders, designers, producers, retailers and customers;
- creating a recognisable Australian hemp provenance and export story;
- connecting growers instantly with processors, producers and patrons; and
- measuring demand earlier than dramatically increasing manufacturing.
That course is in keeping with the Senate report’s proposed nationwide framework, which incorporates market improvement and trade progress, nationwide branding and export positioning, funding confidence, requirements and measurement, and precedence sectors with staged improvement.
That’s important as a result of it acknowledges one thing the trade has typically been reluctant to confess: rising hemp is just not the tip aim. Utilizing it’s.
Construct the market and the crop will comply with
There’s huge enthusiasm round what hemp might turn out to be in Australia. We share it. However enthusiasm alone doesn’t create an trade.
Prospects do. Contracts do. Specs do. Merchandise that carry out do. Repeat orders do.
If Australia creates sturdy, reliable markets for hemp merchandise, the remainder of the worth chain abruptly has one thing to construct in direction of. Farmers have a motive to plant. Processors have a motive to take a position. Producers have a motive to develop merchandise. Buyers have a motive to offer capital. Regional communities have a motive to construct functionality.
So maybe Australia’s hemp technique wants to start on the reverse finish of the availability chain.
Not with the query, ‘How a lot hemp can we develop?’
However with: The place can we use hemp nicely sufficient that individuals maintain asking for extra?
Reply that query, and rising extra hemp turns into the simple half.
| NEXT IN THE SERIES May Hempcrete Lastly Enter Australia’s Constructing Code? Half 3 will have a look at the Senate suggestions on constructing requirements, hearth testing, carbon measurement and what must occur earlier than hemp-based building supplies can transfer additional into the Australian mainstream. |
Supply and additional studying: Senate inquiry & report | Margaret River Hemp Processing | Farm-to-finished hemp | About HempCo
