Alternative Byron Bay brand Afends is striving to be the first Australian company to produce its own hemp fibres on its Sleep Hollow farm in northern NSW.
Speaking with Ragtrader, Afends co-founder Jonathan Salfield said the overall goal is to bring its manufacturing process back to Australia, with products made from “seed-to-skin.”
Currently, around two thirds of its product range is made from hemp, with the fibre sourced from overseas.
“Where we're at, at the moment, is in that whole R&D stage,” Salfield said. “It's quite a long process from seed to then ending up in your own production.
“Our end goal is to get to a stage where you'll be able to buy an Afends item that says ‘made on Sleepy Hollow Farm.’”
The founders Declan Wise and Salfield bought the 100 acre farm in northern NSW in late 2021. A year later, the pair have successfully grown three acres of hemp. This equals to 250 kilograms of the harvested fibre, which was then sent to Afends’ offshore production company for testing.
According to the pair, if its hemp passes the test, Afends will be on track to reaching its local production goals. However, Salfield said the process is "gonna take some time.”
“For one, the industry that we sit in is very competitive with price,” he said. “And you've got to be competitive with price or no one's gonna buy your product.
“Afends sits in quite a medium-level price tier, where men's t-shirts range between $60 and $80.
“If you're making that same product here in Australia, the margins are gonna get completely squashed.
“As far as business decisions, this wouldn't work.
“If we can get to a stage where [local manufacturing] is a bit more automated, potentially, and they have the right infrastructure with machines and stuff like that; I think Australia could start manufacturing clothes for fashion again.”
To diversify its income streams in the meantime, the pair is considering selling its hemp to overseas markets in the near future.
“It is possible for us to grow really high quality hemp here,” Salfield said. “And it is possible to export that to markets like Vietnam, China, India, that need hemp to make into textiles.
“Most of those big countries that manufacture a lot of the fashion here in Australia, like China, they're in the other hemisphere.”
Salfield said that many of those countries are getting their hemp from France, including the main hemp factory that Afends works with in China.
“But, they really, really want to get hemp in Australia, because we're in the other hemisphere and we'll provide it at a time when they won't actually be able to get hemp from the northern hemisphere.”
Navigating hemp farming
Despite successfully cultivating three acres of hemp, Salfield said the seasons proved difficult considering the recent record rainfall.
However, he said the first major hurdle was sourcing the right seeds.
“There's not many options for where we get that from,” Salfield said. “We're able to source it from a company called EcoFibre.
“They create hemp seed for a couple of different industries.”
The other challenge, Salfield said, was working out how to grow the hemp, “to get the soil right, to then... do we need irrigation?”
“Which we actually did, mainly because it was such a wet season and we had so much rain.
“Where we grew the hemp was on a steep elevation hill, so the rain didn't affect it. We had such a lot of run off, it was fine.
“Down below was pretty wet, it flooded a little bit, but not to the extent that we saw in Lismore and Mullumbimby.”
The other distinct challenge is overcoming the stigma around hemp, with its associations with marijuana.
According to Salfield, this is why hemp farming in NSW hasn’t seen much fruition despite it being legalised throughout Australia in 2017.
According to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI), hemp has very low concentrations of THC and is of no value as a drug.
“That stigma, you can't wipe it overnight,” Salfield said. “I think the way that will help elevate hemp is by showcasing the sustainable values and the positive impact that it will have on the environment if more fashion brands choose to use hemp in their collections.”
Further from this, DPI said hemp is also sustainable, as it requires less irrigation water and use of agricultural chemicals than other fibre crops.
The sustainability side of hemp is also why Afends is growing the plant, while also sourcing other sustainable materials for its clothing, such as organic cotton.
“[Organic cotton] is still an important piece of the puzzle because it's one step better than conventional cotton,” Salfield said.
The other pillar is through recycled materials.
“One of the main things we do is we recycle off-cuts from the factory floor,” Salfield continued.
“Recycled cotton was probably one of our major ones we do, where all of our off-cuts - which in the past would go to landfill - [are now] repurposed back into the textile and make our product out of it.”