A local woman is helping provide more eco-friendly building materials with her burgeoning hemp-processing business.

HempCentral founder Tanya Simmonds first became interested in hemp when she was looking for a way to reduce her injured dog’s pain. 

While it turned out hemp cannot be used for medicinal purposes on animals in New Zealand, through her research Tanya started to learn about the myriad uses of hemp, which sparked an interest in using the product for industrial purposes.

“I attended the New Zealand Industrial Hemp Conference in Rotorua in 2021,” Tanya told the Wānaka App. 

“And there were just a lot of amazing speakers there who were talking about sustainable building products being made from hemp.

“That sort of started me on this journey,” she said.

With the recent purchase of an Ashford Hemp Processor - the first in New Zealand - Tanya can chop and separate cured hemp stems into hurd, fines and bast.

She is currently using the machine to process hemp hurd “which is one of the products we get when we process it which can be mixed with a binder to build houses”.

It’s just one of many products which can be made with hemp using the processor.

“I think I’m looking at maybe developing hemp insulation… They do that a lot overseas, but I think potentially we could do that here,” Tanya said. 

“And there's also some people that I know are interested in using hemp for 3D printing. So the potential is there to look at a wide range of products. 

“But it’s early days yet - we just got the machine here and we’re getting the hurd coming out and then I'm going to go from there.” 

Hemp fibre has been used extensively throughout history, Tanya said.

For centuries, items ranging from rope to fabrics and paper to clothing - among many others - were made from hemp fibre.

“It’s an amazing crop,” she said.

Its medicinal qualities are often misunderstood and it is associated with marijuana but it has a much lower THC value, Tanya said.

Tanya said she was excited about the huge potential of the product and she is seeking more local growers who are interested in supplying hemp to her. 

Anyone who wants to get in touch with Tanya can do so at [email protected]

PHOTO: Supplied