Hungary, a nation rich in history and culture, has been one of the most important countries in terms of textile hemp production. Indeed, this versatile and environmentally friendly plant has been part of the long Hungarian tradition ever since it was cultivated by local farmers to create clothes and medicines. However, with the passage of time and, above all, after the prohibition imposed by the local government, hemp cultivation has suffered a severe setback, almost disappearing in the country.

A game changer is the renewed interest in hemp that many local farmers and companies have had. After decades of legislative restrictions, hemp is slowly beginning to be cultivated again, offering interesting advantages to both farmers and local companies. This will be discussed in today's article.

Going back: the history of textile hemp in Hungary

Hemp is one of the oldest and most traditional cultures in Hungary. According to research by archaeologists, the first hemp plantations in the Magyar country date back to the 1st century B.C., before the arrival of the Romans. The plants were cultivated by local farmers who exploited its fibres to create mainly textiles. This is why, in traditional local customs, hemp is an integral part of the folklore that represents the historical identity of its people.

Centuries have passed but hemp has continued to be one of the most cultivated plants in the country. The boom came in the 19th century when plantations had grown to 82,000 hectares. Then, in the 1950s and 1960s, Hungary had become one of the world's most famous green gold fibre-producing superpowers. Factories, weaving and spinning mills worked day and night thanks to the raw material that was cultivated on thousands of hectares. Not to mention that the hemp varieties that were patented by the Hungarian farmers were among the most advanced in the world. The first Hungarian hemp variety, created from Italian seed, was officially recognised in 1923 under the name F-hemp, the result of the work of the Kompolt Research Institute. This seed was cultivated in Hungarian soil until 1954. With time and innovations introduced in the agricultural sector such as the Bredemann method, hemp varieties evolved, allowing the fibre yield per hectare to be increased. The 25% increase in yield allowed Hungary, in just a few decades, to position itself as a leading producer country in the world, stimulating the use of local varieties abroad as well.

One of the main areas where hemp was the main production driver was Csongrad County, i.e. in the Southern Great Plain region where a long tradition led to 23,000 hectares being cultivated. The final product obtained after harvesting was not only sold on the domestic market but also exported abroad. The most important customer was Kazakhstan, which used hemp to protect the wheat crop from local climatic conditions.

However, in the 1990s, hemp was banned by the Hungarian national government, which adhered to the prohibitionist policy proposed by the United States, despite Hungary being one of the leading countries in this sector. This decision by the government put an end to hemp production in the country, causing an untold loss of years of tradition. In fact, after the collapse and separation of the Soviet Union, the entire network and trade channels changed, reducing, to the point of complete disappearance, the export of the product. What is most surprising is the fact that Hungary decided to close its hemp production industry just when Western Europe began to increase demand for fibre, seeds, pods and oil obtained from the hemp plant.

Hungary's political and legal orientation led to the virtual disappearance of all hemp plantations from the country's soil in 2010, with the exception of a few areas where the Kompolti variety patented by Ivan Bócsa, one of the most appreciated and loved green gold seeds in the world, continued to be cultivated. Proving the total abundance of the sector is the geographical survey made by Bernhard in 2010, the owner of the hemp hosiery factory. Bernhard, after hours of relentless work, discovered that there were only three hectares left planted with hemp in the entire country.

Why was and is hemp so important for Hungary today?

In the past, the hemp produced in the country was not used, as is currently thought, to produce psychoactive substances. This fibre with unique properties was cultivated to produce textiles, sails and ropes for two reasons. Firstly, because it is a durable fibre that was unlikely to wear out with the passage of time. Furthermore, already in ancient times, the local population had realised that textile hemp was able to retain water better, especially when compared to flax, which is why fabric made from this rustic plant was used to produce ropes and sails for ships.

But it did not end there. In fact, although hemp was mainly cultivated to make strong and durable textiles, the plant was also used to prepare food for animals while the seed was pressed to obtain oil and even hemp butter. It is clear, therefore, that hemp has been an extremely versatile multi-purpose resource for Hungary since ancient times, contributing to both the food supply and the textile industry.

Nowadays, these possibilities are even broader, so it should come as no surprise that hemp has become a very versatile and enormously useful raw material at the centre of a revalorisation process in the country, as we shall see below.

The current situation of textile hemp

The first major challenge that still limits the production of textile hemp in Hungary to this day, apart from unfavourable national legislation, is the fact that harvesting is still very often done by hand following a laborious and extremely time-consuming process. This is one of the main reasons why not many people have embarked on the hemp business.

In any case, local producers are beginning a process of modernisation and mechanisation of harvesting to optimise production by setting up funded projects to restore textile hemp to its former glory.

The Csongrad regional project

As we mentioned earlier, Csongrad County used to be the main centre of textile hemp cultivation in Hungary. Today, after decades of prohibition, the Csongrad regional programme is trying to promote hemp cultivation in the area again, but not only. The aim is to be able to expand the area of interest further west. This is why plans have been made, with the incoming sources of funding, to innovate the current production facility and initiate new research projects.

At the same time, the programme wants to expand the amount of land for hemp cultivation while also creating new jobs.

Company Max-Lindner Kft.

Also believing in the potential of hemp is a local company in Nagykáta, where the production of socks and hold-ups has begun. The German Lindner family headed by Bernhard Lindner, who belongs to the tenth generation of the family, is carrying out the project. His company Max-Lindner Kft. in Hungary was founded in 1996 but it was in 1999 that the factory decided to produce hold-ups and socks using hemp despite the slow decline to which the domestic textile industry seemed destined. At that time, the factory had only 30 workers and produced socks, 80% of which were sold on the local market.

The not very attractive landscape changed in 2004 when EU membership was signed, which stimulated the free movement of goods. The turning point for the Lindner family then came in 2008 when the factory began to collaborate with Nagylak's HungaroHemp industry. After initial difficulties, a collaboration with the German company HempAge-gel was signed in 2012, which brought the Nagykáta company's production levels of socks and hold-ups to a new level.

The future of the factory currently looks very prosperous and positive. Every year, production increases by 100 per cent to 30,000 pairs of socks per year. In addition to the proprietary plantation located in Vésztá and the knitting factory in Nagykáta, Bernhard plans to open a spinning factory and a dyeing plant to cover the entire process of processing the hemp fibre, starting with the cultivation of the raw material to the processing of the raw material and the production of the final product.

The case of Vésztá

As for Vésztá, a town in Békés County, it has a population of 7,000 people, 1,000 of whom were looking for work in 2016. The high level of unemployment was a source of concern for the local community. But it was hemp that lent a helping hand, the revalorisation of which enabled new jobs to be created in local factories dedicated both to the cultivation and processing of the plant into products for the domestic and export markets.

Prospects for the future

The future of hemp in Hungary is still to be defined. The coordinator of the regional programme in Csongrad emphasised that the production plant has been innovated both technologically and in terms of mechanisation, not to mention that new research projects are being financed that aim to improve production. This is precisely why the regional programme and other projects for the revaluation of hemp in Hungary want to join the projects proposed by the European Union. The ultimate goal is to create a modern industry by innovating current production that is still incipient.

But it does not end there. The regional programme has as its main objective the sowing of hemp in 2-300 hectares of land, increasing the amount of plots allocated to the cultivation of green gold over the next seven years. This will be carried out by an organisation of local farmers who will sow and harvest the fibre. The development plan also mentions that efforts are being made to incorporate some secondary processors into the plants while, at the same time, it is estimated that at least 200 new jobs will be created.

For its part, pointing to the future, the National Institute for Strategic Research initiated a programme of industrial hemp cultivation. Békés County has also decided to give hemp a chance by starting the local project, which since 2016 has been coordinated by Bernhard, owner of the Nagykáta plant mentioned earlier. In just a few years, the project has become the leading producer of the seeds used in Hungary. Bernhard himself, looking to the future with optimism, considers that in the next 2 or 3 years there could be major technological breakthroughs for textile hemp in Hungary.

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