France’s sole authorized supplier of certified hemp planting seed has new leadership after its long-time director left the organization earlier this month.
Hemp-It, widely viewed as Europe’s flagship cooperative in certified hemp seed, appointed Dominique Ego as its new director following outgoing director Christophe Février’s move to chief executive of Fleuron d’Anjou, a horticulture cooperative.
Ego arrives at Hemp-It with more than a decade of experience in the agricultural sector. He began his career in 2014 with the Normandy cooperative OrigenPlus, later becoming director of genetics for the Altitude group and then general manager of UALC, a cooperative dedicated to bovine genetics.
The change in leadership, reported by Ouest France, took effect on Sept. 15.
A hempseed monopoly
Founded in 1964, Hemp-It is engaged in breeding, seed certification, and R&D as well as international partnerships. The cooperative has reported rapid expansion over the past decade; it now includes 155 producers across western and central-western France – in Maine-et-Loire, Vienne, Deux-Sèvres, Indre-et-Loire, and Sarthe – and has around 50 employees.
Hemp-It, in combination with the Coopérative Centrale des Producteurs de Semences de Chanvre (CCPSC), dominates the French market for certified hemp planting seed through exclusive authorization that gives it a de facto monopoly. The co-op also exerts wide influence over hemp farming across Europe by controlling the highly popular French hemp varieties – which are also sold further abroad.
Hemp-It handles the multiplication, cleaning, certification, and sales of seed, while CCPSC, created in 1965, provides the structural framework that centralizes and coordinates seed production and varietal development. Hemp-It focuses exclusively on certified hemp varieties for grain and fiber cultivation and does not produce CBD or flower-type varieties.
Février’s decade
Under Février’s leadership – he spent a decade at the co-op – Hemp-It invested €13.2 million in new facilities in Beaufort-en-Anjou, including a production unit, laboratory, and headquarters; reported turnover quadrupled between 2014 and 2024.
Hemp-It also announced a €2.3 million project in 2024 to build a protein extraction plant, expected to open this year, that will diversify revenues in food, feed, and cosmetics.