A few years ago, Shailesh Ganeriwala, Founder CEO, OG Hemp and Animesh Thakur, Co-founder & Hemp Consultant, went on a journey to countries where hemp is a common sight, to understand what applications are prevalent in the market.
Animesh was already into researching about hemp which gave them a first-mover advantage. The duo met a lot of consumable and topical manufacturers to gain experience from but there was also a chance of getting lost in the general race. Shailesh says, “As a result of experiences and brainstorming the horizontal, we discovered “hemp paper” and realised it could serve as a supplement to tree paper in terms of packaging and paper products. This helped put us on a path to making hemp paper and OG Hemp was born.”
The Hemp industry, being new and laden with regulations, does not promote ease of doing business. Although even in such a harsh business environment, there are companies that are thriving in terms of gaining a foothold in the market.
Speaking about the initial challenges, Shailesh explains, “Consumables and Topicals are on top of the industry while paper was non-existent. The initial hardship was in lieu of forging new partnerships and understanding the supply chain as it was. The raw material authenticity and reliable vendors were hard to find. This is continually evolving and will take less time to reach the pinnacle than it took to take off.”
Grown responsibly
OG Hemp sources its hemp from Uttarakhand and has its processing and manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra & Rajasthan. “There are a couple of licensed farmers from Uttarakhand whom we source the fibres from. These licenses are given to the farmers that use approved seed vendors and grow responsibly. We also have verified hemp fibre vendors in the EU and the USA that have their own certification of materials,” informs Shailesh.
Another source of raw material are some of the textile mills in the state of Gujarat. The lustrous part of bast fibre is used to make premium textiles and the outer part which is a waste is an ideal raw material for paper making. These vendors are genuine as they come with traceability of the raw materials, he says.
OG Hemp has developed a range of over 100 SKUs to be sold on its B2C e-commerce portal. The products belong in the categories of stationery, packaging, products for Art & Craft and celebrity merchandise.
Shailesh adds, “Our paper has certifications to test the constituents of the ready end product & our raw material sourcing is from the vendors that have approved facilities or have a license to grow. We refrain from using any post recyclable material in our paper as that reduces the traceability of raw materials along with deteriorating the quality that is obtained from 100% Hemp.”
India is a world leader in paper waste. The Indian recycling industry needs nearly 14 million tonnes of waste paper to meet current demands. Domestic recycling only produces 30% of that amount, and recycling levels are only half the global average. So the demand for waste paper from abroad is likely to remain strong.
But Shailesh points out, ‘The challenge facing Indian importers is how to enforce more stringent rules about the kind of waste they are prepared to accept, sometimes even receiving plastic and other waste material in the recyclable paper. Cultivation of hemp would reduce this dependency on import to an extent. The introduction of hemp, whose recycling capability is more than twice that of normal paper, will definitely be an addition to the recycling market.”
Supply chain and logistics
OG Hemp’s strategic geographical location in Kolkata gives it an advantage of being cost efficient in the processing part of the supply chain. The wood based paper industry is optimised to a level that achieves high efficiency, while a similar supply chain for hemp is still in its making. “Processing less quantity makes this process for hemp a bit expensive but this cannot be a comparison factor as it has other advantages that dwarf these differences. Being a farming country, logistical support for crops are available and the number of farmers with licenses are also growing. With an increased push by the industry to support cultivation, we are sure that it would improve hemp cultivation output as a country, very soon,” enthuses Shailesh.
In today’s scenario, where hemp paper is pricier than tree paper, the company has developed products and validated them by having established clients in over 18 countries. These include but are not limited to Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark and Greece. Asian markets include Malaysia, Philippines among others.
Future plans include:
- Plans to mechanise the hemp paper production process
- Continued R&D on raw material processing, production of paper, printing techniques, price optimisation and sales channels.
- Developing plastic alternative products like bottles, plates, glass etc with hemp fibre.
- Converting hemp stalk for the plywood & furniture industry.
- Developing hemp bioplast, which is a solid alternative to the plastics industry.
- R&D on hemp stalk, fibre & hurds
- Developing capability on hemp-based fabric yarn
Shailesh sums up, “In our hemp paper vertical, the goal is to develop industrial hemp pulp, which can be converted into various end products, like cardboard and toilet paper.”
