As part of RDI2CluB online benchmarking experience, Regional Council of Central Finland had a thematic discussion with Suomen Hampputuote Ltd. on 16.9 2020. Benchmarking report as an attachment.
Summary_online benchmarking experience_ RCCF and Suomen Hampputuote Ltd…pdf (105,2 Kt)
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The problem discussed was the pretreatment method for hemp production. In Central Finland there is only one big factory separating hemp fiber from hemp hurt. Big, centralized refineries require big investments and cause dependency to one service provider. In Finland, hemp farms are small, and geographically distributed. To help little hemp farmers in their production, there should be a farm-scale machine to separate the hemp fiber from the hemp hurt on field. This machine could be additional to harvester or some other farming machine. As the problem is crucial and should be solved to get the hemp farming more attractive for farmers, this is a perfect case for the open co-innovation process. The idea is that finally there could be a manual about how to build the pretreatment machine to be included to your harvester.
SWOT:
Strengths:
• Some farmers exist and some hemp is produced.
• A lot of development work is going on.
• Can be used in production of food, construction materials, textiles etc.
• Can be grown also in less-quality fields
Weaknesses:
• At this point no possibilities for farmers to separate the hemp hurt from hemp fibre.
• Wrong image of consumers when talking about hemp.
• Only a few farmers and users of hemp
• Development work, including separation technologies, mostly developed abroad, not in Finland.
Opportunities:
• Nutrient rich plant
• Can be used in production of food, construction materials, textiles etc.
• The need for new sustainable materials and solutions worldwide.
Threats:
• Approach and decisions of authoritative.
• No money and people for developing solutions to get the production profitable
• Wrong images of hemp
Discussion was rich and fluent between RDI2CluB partners and Suomen Hampputuotteet Ltd. Two starters for a solution were recognized:
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National or transnational development project for the creation of prototype for producing hemp building material: Tarvaala Bioeconomy Campus has wide testing facilities and some expertise around it. Also, Biobord Network makes transnational aspect possible. Idea has been presented for JAMK – Institute of Bioeconomy, and hopefully next steps will be taken.
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Idea is also presented for Biobord Network and transnational discussion may continue Biobord. Suomen Hampputuotteet Ltd has also registered on Biobord.
@suomenhampputuotteet, could you please share your presentation here again ? 
Maybe Biobord Network has some ideas!
Thank you @ennihuotari for the summary!