---
title: "Hemp dreams — young South African pioneers create a new industry against all odds"
description: "South African startup Green Route is reimagining hemp as a commercial textile powerhouse, breeding local seeds to boost manufacturing and create sustainable jobs."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "GREEN ROUTE"
author: "Diana Neille"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/diananeille/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-26-hemp-dreams-young-south-african-pioneers-create-a-new-industry-against-all-odds/"
published: "2026-08-26T12:14:42"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 1320
---

# Hemp dreams — young South African pioneers create a new industry against all odds

> South African startup Green Route is reimagining hemp as a commercial textile powerhouse, breeding local seeds to boost manufacturing and create sustainable jobs.

By Diana Neille · Published 26 August 2026, 14:14 SAST

## Key points
- Young South African entrepreneurs (Green Route) are building a hemp industry that produces fabrics, hempcrete and food while restoring ecosystems.
- Hemp farming boosts biodiversity and requires no pesticides/fertilisers, offering a sustainable local textile supply for struggling mills.
- Main hurdles: scarce locally adapted seed, slow regulatory development and stigma, and limited industry data.
- Green Route focuses on vertical integration, local seed breeding, compliance/accreditation and sharing knowledge to scale the sector.

## Content

On a smallholding 40 minutes south of Johannesburg, near the town of Walkerville, the first indication of something exceptional unfolding beyond the high brick wall alongside a solitary rural road is the birds. Thousands of them, tending to their nests in a one-acre thicket of sturdy stalks.

The canopy of leaves above has an iconic shape: the seven-fingered star, with its jagged edges; totemised by the Rastafarian movement; demonised by Richard Nixon’s and Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs that, for several generations, doomed cannabis to the classification of a Schedule I drug. For [more than a century](https://journals.openedition.org/poldev/4007) of its 10,000-year existence as a domesticated crop – one of Mesolithic humanity’s first, and most diversely useful – it’s been lumped together with heroin, LSD and ecstasy as an addictive drug with [“high potential for abuse”](https://www.dea.gov/drug-information/drug-scheduling).

Many plant species are made up of varieties and cultivars. In the case of *Cannabis sativa*, it’s a single plant with two different names and one crucial distinction: “marijuana” contains intoxicating levels of the cannabinoid chemical delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. Hemp, unless specifically grown to do so, contains so little of this psychoactive ingredient that it’s barely worth mentioning: less than 0.3% by dry weight.

![NEILLE_HEMP1](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/lKljCu__jMeaCt0uciKB17UMlxI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_6407_326632.jpg)

*While it is time consuming to process hemp fibre by hand, seasonal workers have become adept at stripping the stalks efficiently after two harvests at Green Route. (Photo: Diana Neille)*

This is one of the reasons lobbying efforts over the past decade have forced governments around the world to acknowledge the economic, cultural and ecological short-sightedness of stigmatising and relegating to the illicit drug trade a plant as multifaceted and as tied to human development as cannabis.

In the years since 2018, when the South African government decriminalised the personal use of cannabis, regulations and attitudes have begun to change. For “pioneers”, the uptake is painfully slow. But thousands of South Africans have since applied for licences to farm and manufacture cannabis for both its CBD-based, recreational and medicinal uses; and for the remarkable array of products hemp can supply, and the almost unparalleled ecological benefits the plant provides.

“I think that’s one of the things I love most about this crop, is that you literally see an ecosystem come to life where there were no signs of life before,” said Mahlatse Mohlala, walking with his colleague, agriculturist Chad Ferlito, beneath the busy nests.

“I’ve seen grey loeries, I’ve seen cranes. The rest of the wildlife around here is benefiting from the fact that there’s no pesticides, no herbicides, there’s nothing unnatural. I haven’t even put down nutrients or fertilisers. I haven’t had to,” said Ferlito.

Mohlala is the founder and director of Green Route Hemp Industries, a nascent hemp textile manufacturing company that, in less than three years, has become a leader in this space. Mohlala’s venture traces back to the mid-2010s at Stellenbosch University, where he met future friends and colleagues Muofhe Kwinda and Lehlohonolo Maisela.

![NEILLE_HEMP1](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/UgN4qbyufQZRFLlhoHCRtqfpoTg=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_6417_816045.jpg)

*Mahlatsi Mohlala and Chad Ferlito chat with workers on Green Route’s smallholding. (Photo: Diana Neille)*

### Sustainable promise

As a Geography and Environmental Studies major, Mohlala recognised the sustainable promise of hemp fibre in textiles – prompting him to bring Kwinda and his investment management expertise on board to turn the concept into reality.

“\[In SA\] we have a strong heritage of farming and – what a lot of people don’t even know – a strong heritage of textiles. We have some of the best textile mills and best weavers on the continent,” said Mohlala.

“We are, as a textile industry, quite competitive when you look at the global industry… But our local mills have been suffering, especially post-Covid and \[competing with\] cheap imports. So, introducing a local fibre like hemp that’s sustainable and eco-friendly gives local mills an opportunity to actually bump up their capacity, maintain those jobs versus losing money from importing foreign material or using synthetics.”

![NEILLE_HEMP1](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/ZVrfrRACUX2YkbTmc7PFEZldHiY=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_6339_203574.jpg)

*Some of the products Green Route has successfully developed in just two years of operations. (Photo: Diana Neille)*

Hemp is the Swiss Army knife of plants. Its woody core – hurd – is the substrate for a carbon-sequestering, insulative and fire-resistant natural building material called hempcrete that is increasingly replacing wasteful and harmful construction staples. The shelled kernels of its seeds, called hemp hearts, provide a nutrient- and protein-dense superfood. And the fibres from its stalks can be used for hundreds of products, from rope and netting to paper and packaging, to the durable, high-quality [fabrics that Green Route produces](https://greenroutehemp.co.za/home).

[Read more

SA’s annual cannabis expo reflects a budding industry in a somewhat muddled landscape

May 31, 2026 ![Image](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/SJCjzeOU0hiJmBatB4jGtvn_LII=/450x0/smart/file/attachments/orphans/unnamed1_397619.jpg)](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-05-31-sas-annual-cannabis-expo-reflects-a-budding-industry-in-a-somewhat-muddled-landscape/)

“The key thing is trying to actually show the industrial potential of hemp to the everyday South African, to move them and shift their perception from the typical corner \[cannabis\] store that you’re seeing, and the conventional, ‘Here’s a vape, here’s an oil.’ No – here’s a sewing drive. That mine that your uncle used to work at? We grow hemp on that farm. We processed it for fabrics that your auntie made. \[It’s a\] completely different story,” said Mohlala.

Green Route’s end-game was a fully vertically integrated system that bought biomass – hemp material – from other farmers on one side and produced a variety of textile products on the other, while creating a “cluster” for hemp producers that shared resources, knowledge and systems, said Ferlito.

![NEILLE_HEMP1](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/itawwPg4XGyXEkB7hHuYne_0xLk=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_6423_635960.jpg)

*Chad Ferlito tries on a hemp jacket he and his colleagues have created from the crop they developed and grew in less than three years. (Photo: Diana Neille)*

### Significant hurdles

But to get to that point, some significant hurdles must be addressed.

The most critical is seed; in part because of its designation as an illicit substance, stocks of hemp seeds have not been sufficiently developed or stored by the South African government, which is now struggling to meet demand from new entrants.

Most [hemp seed](https://hempfoundation.net/top-5-countries-leading-the-way-in-industrial-hemp-production/) comes from China (70%), India, North America and the Netherlands. Green Route initially experimented with French and Chinese varieties, for which they obtained breeders’ rights. While the latter has shown good results, the French seed did not germinate at all, probably because it was bred for the northern hemisphere’s long summer days.

Fortunately, as the company was starting up, the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) was developing the [official South African hemp variety](https://pmg.org.za/committee-question/29044/), ARC-CAN-03, which Mohlala and his colleagues accessed.

“Our intention is to breed that seed,” said Mohlala. “What we’re trying to do is take the traits of the Chinese genetics to improve our local genetics and actually list local genetics with the necessary performance. Because we can’t rely on this Chinese genetic forever, and because that’s now losing a lot of the value from the industry by doing that.”

![NEILLE_HEMP1](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/6U9k1U9uG8bUc7rH_j5AXYadbQ8=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_6356_516419.jpg)

*Seasonal workers process the dried hemp for its fibres, a slow but simple process that will eventually need to be mechanised as the company grows. (Photo: Diana Neille)*

Navigating an emerging sector as it aligns with global standards, Mohlala’s team knew compliance and quality hinged on one crucial factor: understanding seed genetics.

“That is by far something that we take the most pride in, is that the compliance is a big part of the credibility. If you don’t have that in check, then it’s very difficult for people to trust you,” said Mohlala. “That’s why it’s important for us that we even got this facility Agri-Seta \[Agricultural Sector Training Authority\] accredited. We needed to be recognised in the eyes of the people that matter.”

Their strategy is working. In less than three years, Green Route has become a model for how SA can enter the global hemp market and begin to compete, albeit with significant challenges to overcome.

“Everything that we’re doing here is literally to just showcase the industrial potential of the crop,” said Mohlala. “There’s no data on hemp in Africa, so that’s something we need and want to address. And we are starting to fill that gap.” **DM**