Leading European agri-business and food producer HANF FARM GmbH has relocated its headquarters and is now operating out of a 25,000 sq. m complex near the village of Melz in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeast Germany. The company was previously headquartered in Berlin.
“We now find ourselves in a situation in which demand, production capacity and acreage are all positively dependent on each other,” CEO Rafael Dulon said of the move. “We’re much better set up now to play our part in the broader sustainable regional economy,” Dulon said of the company’s philosophy.
Dulon said the area around Melz has a high concentration of biologically certified organic agricultural land. “Many of these areas have a long history in organic farming and are therefore particularly suitable for hemp cultivation,” he said.
Space for greenhouses
The relocation gives HANF FARM 3,000 square meters of production halls at the highest technical and hygienic levels, and provides better production and storage conditions, Dulon said. More importantly, the overall complex offers plenty of space for production in on-site greenhouses, he noted.
“We put a lot of energy into the development of gentle harvesting methods and the treatment of the raw materials during and after drying,” said Dulon, whose company developed the MC HC 3400, a combine that can harvest short and long varieties of hemp, taking the tops, blossoms and seeds without damaging the plants as the machine moves through the field. HANF FARM harvests hemp with its own machines and processes them immediately after harvesting with either stationary or continuous process technology. The raw materials are then further processed in separate production halls that turn out seeds, leaves, flowers and straw.
“In order to further increase our added value on site, we will also install different extraction technologies in the future,” Dulon said.
HANF FARM was the first European hemp processor to receive certification for hemp seeds, leaves and flowers under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC-PLUS) regime. Furthermore, HANF FARM is intensively involved in publicizing the great advantages of hemp cultivation in meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Another busy year
It’s been a year of expansion for HANF FARM. Always innovating, the company recently added organic quality tea leaves in different sizes and finenesses to its product line along with new powder products from the leaves and blossoms, and a hemp root powder. Future plans call for production of a new line of oil extracts made with various solvents. In view of the increasing demand for organic fiber, HANF FARM also started offering straw-based products as it continues to research new methods for fiber harvesting and processing.
HANF FARM also makes a range of own-brand foods and provides white-label finished foodstuffs to other major German hemp foods brands. In both cases German “drogeria” chains like D&M and Rossman that sell over-the-counter medicine and health & beauty products are expanding into food, giving HANF FARM added distribution power. Some are large-volume buyers who package and sell HANF FARM-produced white label foods under their own brand names.
