INTERVIEW: Andriy Mykytiv is founder and CEO of Ma’Rijany Hemp Firm, Ukraine’s largest industrial hemp processing enterprise and one of many largest hemp fiber tasks in Central and Japanese Europe. Ma’Rijany operates a vertically built-in mannequin that features cultivation, major processing and improvement of downstream industrial functions. The corporate launched a €27 million processing facility within the Zhytomyr area in 2025, targeted on lengthy textile fiber, brief fiber and hemp shivs for development, bioplastics and different industrial makes use of. Mykytiv can be co-owner and deputy CEO of Okay.Tex, a Ukrainian nonwovens producer.
HT: Your mission started earlier than the warfare. What occurred when the invasion began?
AM: We didn’t deploy a single greenback earlier than the full-scale invasion. We solely had the idea. The capital deployment occurred deep into the warfare, and it was financed solely by fairness traders.
HT: What’s the greatest problem of working throughout wartime?
AM: Transport is just not the most important problem. The largest problem is folks. Ukraine has misplaced about 10 million folks by means of migration, roughly a 3rd of the inhabitants. Competitors for labor is fierce, and attracting certified employees is a process that can not be underestimated.
HT: Why did you resolve to focus totally on lengthy fiber?
AM: Initially, the concept was to make a vertically built-in hyperlink to our nonwovens enterprise. My concern on the time was that the mission was going to be too huge in scale, probably greater than US$10 million of funding, and as a single firm we couldn’t afford that. So we had been searching for a solution to ship hemp fiber at a smaller scale. In 2021, it appeared that going for lengthy fiber would permit us to maintain the size smaller whereas promoting brief fiber as a byproduct and promoting the lengthy fiber on the open market.
HT: What do you do with the brief fiber?
AM: These days, our major goal is to promote it for yarn spinning, particularly for semi-wet and dry open-ring spinning.
HT: What markets do you see for hemp shivs (hurd)?
AM: We produce very high-quality, dust-free shivs. They’re considerably darker than merchandise you may discover within the U.S. as a result of we use discipline retting, however that doesn’t make the product inferior. It merely means we now have to elucidate to clients why the colour is completely different.
HT: How vital are shivs to what you are promoting mannequin?
AM: Lengthy fiber dominates the enterprise, most likely by an 80-to-20 margin over shivs.
HT: Why do you harvest earlier than the seed matures?
AM: We harvest in late July or early August, earlier than the seed germinates, and accumulate the crop a number of weeks later, after humidity and temperature have accomplished the retting course of. If you happen to look ahead to full seed maturity and winter retting, the shivs and the fiber deteriorate. For top-quality yarn, that’s an vital issue, and also you received’t be capable to spin 100% hemp yarn from that materials.
HT: The place are you promoting your fiber at present?
AM: We’re concentrating on the European market, the spinners that have already got lengthy hemp fiber of their manufacturing portfolios. We’re additionally taking a look at markets in Asia, significantly India, and we’ve began working straight with the U.S. market as nicely.
HT: Have you ever been capable of promote into China?
AM: We have now. There are at the least three or 4 huge firms in China searching for some of these fibers. There are firms within the U.S. searching for the identical factor—textile makers producing 100% yarns for premium denim merchandise.
HT: Is that also a distinct segment market?
AM: At this stage it’s slightly a distinct segment market. Though we sound like an enormous producer, working about 2,000 hectares, when it comes to product quantity, we’re nonetheless not a big provider.
HT: How a lot hemp are you rising?
AM: This yr we’re farming 2,600 hectares. Of that, 300 hectares are designated for seed manufacturing for subsequent yr’s planting, and the remainder is for fiber.
HT: Which European nations signify your strongest markets?
AM: France, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Germany. These are the potential markets. That doesn’t imply we’ve offered to all of them.
HT: Which downstream sectors do you see driving demand?
AM: We’re far upstream within the worth chain, so my information of downstream developments is proscribed. However I see main manufacturers changing into more and more involved about their public picture and sustainability commitments. Cotton is underneath extreme sustainability strain, and renewable plant fibers like flax and hemp provide the promise of changing a part of the roughly 25 million tons of cotton consumed yearly. Even capturing a fraction of that market would offer an enormous enhance.
HT: How did you develop into concerned in industrial hemp?
AM: It began as a quest for self-dependency in uncooked supplies, one thing that turned much more vital after the warfare began. Ukraine doesn’t have oil or cotton, however traditionally its textile business was constructed round flax and hemp, and that whole upstream chain as soon as existed right here.
HT: You initially wished to be solely a processor. Why did that change?
AM: We wished to develop into a processor as a result of our expertise is in manufacturing and B2B enterprise. However because the mission unfolded, we needed to make troublesome selections, financially and operationally. Constructing the plant was already a significant problem, and increasing concurrently into a number of extra companies added a stage of complexity that’s troublesome to grasp.
HT: Does vertical integration matter?
AM: In Asia there’s such a excessive diploma of vertical integration that it turns into an vital think about capturing margins. When one chain produces the uncooked materials and likewise delivers the ultimate product, it has monumental bargaining energy. That’s not distinctive to hemp—it’s widespread throughout textiles and lots of different industries.
HT: What does Ukraine’s downstream textile infrastructure seem like at present?
AM: We nonetheless have a flexible community of stitching factories and 4 fabric-producing factories, together with some yarn manufacturing. The seven largest yarn spinning and material firms disappeared after the collapse of the upstream worth chain, however there are actually important efforts to rebuild the entire textile chain in Ukraine as a result of we acknowledge the significance of getting our personal provide chain.
HT: Your funding has grown considerably. How was it financed?
AM: In the mean time, we’re above €35 million. We introduced in companions—not all of them dwelling in Ukraine, some have been overseas for many years—however all united by the will to make a significant impression in Ukraine. As a single firm, we couldn’t ship a mission of this scope, so we discovered companions who had been prepared to maneuver ahead with us.
HT: How many individuals do you use?
AM: In the mean time, we now have barely greater than 200 staff throughout all of the subsidiary firms we now have created, whereas increasing up the worth chain.
HT: If a significant worldwide investor walked into your workplace tomorrow, the place would you inform them to speculate?
AM: Product improvement is an actual hole. The best way I see it, the margins are all the best way upstream and all the best way downstream. Every part within the center will get squeezed. From a purely monetary viewpoint, the 2 ends of the worth chain are probably the most engaging.
HT: How vital was hemp traditionally in Ukraine?
AM: Right now we function a state-of-the-art major processing facility, however 40 or 50 years in the past Ukraine had about 100 such services—46 massive ones and round 60 smaller ones. At one level Ukraine had 280,000 hectares of flax and greater than 160,000 hectares of hemp, making it a real agricultural powerhouse.
HT: Ukraine pioneered low-THC hemp varieties. How did that occur?
AM: Within the Nineteen Seventies, as a response to worldwide strain following the Geneva Conference, Ukraine developed non-THC hemp varieties. By 1982, it had develop into the primary nation on the earth to develop a totally dependable non-THC selection, which was later exported and have become one of many spine varieties utilized by different nations to develop industrial hemp.
HT: What position might Ukraine play in Europe’s hemp financial system?
AM: Ukraine has an opportunity to develop into an agricultural powerhouse once more, because it already is in meals manufacturing. There aren’t any important subsidies for Ukrainian agriculture and but its merchandise stay aggressive. If we’re searching for a significant solution to make hemp price-competitive and penetrate markets, Ukraine is an excellent place to do it.
HT: Ten years from now, what would success seem like for Ma’Rijany?
AM: One huge success has already occurred: we launched a mission of this scale after roughly three years of improvement. Trying ten years forward is unrealistic as a result of the course of the warfare will play a significant position, and there is just too a lot uncertainty for Ukraine and for the world.
