Estelle Delangle — Building a Whole-Plant Hemp Bioeconomy

This is part three of a ten-part podcast series documenting the European Industrial Hemp Association's 23rd Annual Conference in Poznan, Poland, at the Institute of Fiber Plants and Medicinal Medicine, June 10-12. Estelle Delangle, director of the Hemp European Hub in Troyes, France, frames the hemp challenge differently than most: The material isn't the problem, the world is. "The world is not ready for hemp. Today, when you use hemp in textile, for example, you have to make it look like something else. You have to make it look like cotton. You have to make it look like wool. You have to make it look like linen or flax," she said. Delangle has spent six years building the Hemp European Hub — a cooperative company that coordinates complex, cross-sector projects across Europe and beyond. The Hub isn't a traditional industry cluster or a government agency. It's a working laboratory for what Delangle calls "cooperative bioeconomy applied to hemp." The European hemp model, she explains, rests on three pillars: farmers who built their own markets and machines; price stability that makes the sector resilient; and whole-plant utilization — fiber for textiles, grain for food, hurd for bedding and leaves for extraction. No waste. "We are trying to do at the hub is to act stone by stone on those socio-technical obstacles," Delangle said, describing her approach to regulatory change, consumer perception and cross-sector cooperation. "Time is key. You don't change the world overnight." The Hub hosts the World Hemp Forum every two years in Troyes, drawing 300 participants from around the world. The next edition is November 24–26, 2026. Learn More Hemp European Hub (Pôle Européen du Chanvre) https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu World Hemp Forum 2026 https://www.pole-europeen-chanvre.eu/world-hemp-forum La Chanvrière — Hemp Cooperative https://www.lachanvriere.com InterChanvre — French Hemp Industry Organization https://www.interchanvre.org Institute of Natural Fibers and Medicinal Plants (IWNIRZ) iwnirz.pl European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) eiha.org/ EIHA Conference eiha-conference.org/ Thanks to Our Sponsors Condor Seed condorseed.com HEMI — The Hemp Education and Marketing Initiative thegoodnessofhemp.org Bish Enterprises — FiberCut Hemp Harvesting bishenterprise.com/fibercut 1937 International 1937international.com