Hemp was once produced in Brazil with support even from the government

By Marcelo De Vita Grecco

Few people know, but Brazil once had hemp cultivation and production of items made from the plant. There were even companies with hemp in their name (which is prohibited today), such as the Companhia Fábrica de Tecidos Cânhamo Juta, founded in 1903 in Recife (PE), which operated until 1931 with 40 looms. Or the Fiação de Cânhamo, Linho e Aramina, from São Paulo.

The country even hosted large companies for the time that used hemp fibers as raw material. This is the case, for example, of the also Pernambucan Companhia Fábrica Yolanda, founded in 1925, which operated with 100 looms and employed 350 people in its production.

A completely different reality from what we have today is that the initiatives for the development of hemp culture in Brazil came from the government itself. There are historical records showing that hemp seeds arrived in Brazilian lands through the Portuguese crown.

The government strategy was to disseminate hemp production to ensure the maintenance of the geopolitical and economic power of the colony, at a time when gold exploration was beginning to decline here. There was encouragement for hemp cultivation for the manufacture of ropes, sails, and fabrics from the plant's fiber, an essential and valuable input for the naval industry of that time.

Great Navigations

It is worth remembering that the use of the fibers of this plant as raw material for the manufacture of ropes and sails, for example, gained relevance during the period of the great navigations and during the industrial revolution, due to the material's great resistance, elasticity, and durability. Therefore, we are dealing with a plant that was relevant for us to reach the world map we know today.

Interestingly, we always emphasize the social and economic benefits that hemp cultivation could guarantee for our country, and the prominence that Brazil could already have in this market. We repeatedly recall the versatility of this plant and its applications in countless industrial segments and the efforts for the development of businesses based on these peculiarities.

Also, continuously, we provide examples of countries where this culture is already widely disseminated. We bring successful examples from our neighbors Uruguay and Paraguay, among other nations more advanced in this global industrial hemp market. 

Historical Detail

However, we often forget to mention this small detail that I believe few people are aware of. After all, it is a historical fact that hemp was once cultivated in Brazil.

Why do I say this? It may seem to the less informed that, with our emphatic defense of the plant, we want to introduce an exotic and unknown strain into our agriculture.

Therefore, I found it important to share a bit of the history of hemp in our country. Also remembering that there are archaeological fragments that prove that the presence of hemp culture and its use in the world dates back millennia.  

I wanted to recall a bit of this historical passage to draw attention to the ignorance of a large part of Brazilian society regarding hemp. And how this lack of information contributes to reinforcing prejudice surrounding the use of the plant in its various aspects, and accentuates its demonization, attributing it characteristics of variants of cannabis sativa with psychoactive properties, which are nonexistent in hemp.

Support from the Crown

Well, historians report that hemp was produced in Brazil from around 1740 to 1824. Starting in 1783, the Portuguese government created the Real Feitoria do Linho Cânhamo, a kind of state entity that guaranteed seeds, tools, and enslaved labor dedicated exclusively to hemp cultivation.

Other important initiatives involving this raw material were carried out between 1880 and 1940, also with private investments. At that time, the material extracted from hemp was destined for the manufacture of paper and fabrics, especially for the production of sacks to pack coffee, among other agricultural products. The state, at the time, contributed by granting land and tax incentives for cultivation.

The plant, according to historians, was even considered as an economic alternative for the country during times of falling international coffee prices. There are records of textile mills set up in Brazil that used hemp as raw material, which I mentioned earlier. 

Gap

Unfortunately, there is a significant gap in the records regarding the history of hemp production in Brazil, as this subject is not something that is learned in school. However, from the little that can be extracted from the past, it is possible to see that the culture had its relevance for the Brazilian economy. 

In none of the records is there any mention of effects other than the fiber's resistance, applications in industry, and economic viability. Even, unfortunately, its ban which made the development of the culture in the country unfeasible.

These excerpts from history support our thesis that hemp does not deserve to be on the list of controlled products, like medicines, a status that has been given to it by our health authorities. Given that, in the past, it was proven to be used as raw material in the textile industry, as shown by the fragments of the history of the fiber in Brazil.

Imagine if we could work freely on hemp production in Brazil today, having at our disposal all the knowledge accumulated by our farmers throughout recent history, which places them at the top of the world in terms of quality and productivity? With the agricultural technologies available today and all the expertise of our agribusiness, we would already be extracting from hemp, in addition to fibers and other derivatives, many revenues for the country.

The opinions expressed in this article are personal and the responsibility of their authors.

About the author: Marcelo De Vita Grecco is CMO of The Green Hub, a startup accelerator focused exclusively on the legal cannabis market.