Hemp: From face masks to designer clothes, a startup is turning hemp into a valuable ingredient

The 2 younger entrepreneurs – Haneesh Katnawer and Sonam SodhaFounding father of the startup Himalayan hemp – mentioned they’d use hemp Gear for the manufacturing of sanitary napkins, clothes (shirts, t-shirts and designer garments), baggage and footwear, in addition to protein powders, anti-aging and cooking oils and different beauty merchandise.

They claimed their startup used hemp vegetation to allow smallholder farmers and artisans to extend their earnings within the mountain states Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Haneesh Katnawer, a manufacturing engineer Himachal Pradesh and Sonam Sodha, an MBA from Gujarat who’re additionally writers and dancers respectively, left their well-paying non-public sector jobs in Gujarat to discovered startup Himalayan Hemp, a group of hemp farmers, artisans and innovators throughout the 2 mountain states.

Chatting with IANS, the younger entrepreneurs mentioned they registered their start-up in Himachal in 2019 and efficiently processed the stem and seeds of the hemp vegetation to make protecting face masks throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. They mentioned that though the pandemic hit their start-up simply months after it was based, they’d not misplaced hope.

They managed to generate over Rs 20 lakh in gross sales by promoting what could be the world’s first N95 licensed hemp face masks and the oil and associated merchandise extracted from the seeds of hemp vegetation.

Katnawer, CEO of “Himalayan Hemp,” mentioned that in two months they are going to launch the first-of-its-kind hemp fiber sanitary serviette. He introduced that the start-up is working with 70 small hemp farmers in 4 districts of Uttarakhand together with Dehradun, Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and Nainital and 30 artisans from the weaker elements of Kangra and Kullu districts in Himachal Pradesh.

“We get uncooked hemp fibers and seeds from the 70 farmers. The hemp stem fiber is then processed into material in our mechanized programs (funded by authorities grants) and the ensuing material is made into designer garments, masks and what’s coming quickly, its type of hemp fiber sanitary serviette, sewn by 30 artisans in Himachal,” mentioned Katnawer informed IANS the first-of-its-kind carbon-negative and high-thermal-insulation mud hut within the Kullu district, fabricated from bricks made out of a mix of hemp shiv (produced by hemp stalks), lime and clay.

“We already promote face masks and hemp seed oil-based merchandise, however the full line of attire, together with the first-of-its-kind sanitary napkins, can be launched quickly after rigorous high quality management and testing,” added Sonam Sodha, the startup’s managing director and COO.

The duo’s start-up, which showcased its hemp-based merchandise on the Begin-Up Expo of the four-day India Worldwide Science Competition (IISF-2022) that ended this week in Bhopal, has additionally already received 4 nationwide and three worldwide awards Authorities grants.

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