Hemp is currently our preferred method of construction so naturally we are looking around to see where we can find it. Eventually we also hope to grow it for personal uses for food, oil, fibers and to provide building materials for other Romanians who may wish to build with Hemp.
Here is what we know:
- There used to be a promising Hemp industry in Romania – very little remains of it.
- The soil and moisture conditions in Romania are excellent for growing hemp.
- We tried contacting Advantages (hemp naufacturer from Timisioara) and were told they no longer exist.
- There is an impressive international! Romanian company in Solanta called Canah that manufacture wonderful hemp-based food-products.
- Though they would like to rely on local (Romanian) supply Canah imports most of its raw materials.
- It is (theoretically) possible to grow hemp in Romania – for which you need an approval in advance and additional monitoring while you grow and harvest the crop.
- Every year, just before Christmas, hemp seeds appear in Romanian markets – they are used to bake a traditional holiday-cake – it is unclear where these hemp-seeds come from (one speculative theory is that it comes from Moldova).
One of the (numerous) ecological aspects of hemp is that it can be grown (and processed) close to where it is actually needed. This reduces the need to transport it across great distances. Transporting it leads to carbon emissions which defeat it’s ecological benefits. We are making an effort to find a Romanian farmer from whom we can purchase the hemp we need to build our home.
Though we will do our best to leave as little ecological damage in getting our hemp it would be an ironic-shame if we had to take our money elsewhere (Hungary, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Holland, UK, etc.).
So my question to anyone who happens to read this and know something about it is what happened to Hemp in Romania? Why was it illegalized? Why was a promising industry shut down? Who could possible havy gained from this? What can be done to fix what looks like a tragic mistake for the Romanian economy?
4 replies on “What Happened to Hemp in Romania?”
Hemp is an early brother of cannabis, or weed. If thats not clear enough, its almost the same with mariquana. What i mean to say, you can smoke it and get high, just like any other weed you smoke. Hope this helps.
Radu – there are many varieties of hemp plants. Some of them have high levels of the substance that gets you high. However many varieties were and are cultivated for vast uses and applications (probably more then you can imagine). There is joke that you would need to smoke about 6 hectares of hemp to get high. So equating hemp with marijuana is ignorance.
Hi, I am planning on starting to grow this year. I have 25 hectares of land up in Maramures. I understand I need to obtain an allocation for the land I will use for growing hemp. Do you have any idea where I would get that?
I think the process requires visiting the central city in your county. I believe that the people the people at http://www.ecoruralis.ro/ will be able to either give you more details or refer you to someone who knows about this.