BushWeave-Hemp

Our Journey Started with a Simple Idea

Urvara Pty Ltd is a sustainable fashion sourcing company, and our goal has always been to have a meaningful impact in our community. With sustainability at our core and to create a concept for a circular economy that would benefit the Australian fashion industry using strengths of Australia and India for a win-win outcome.

In our research, we uncovered a key gap: Australia grows industrial hemp but lacks the capability to process raw fibre into industrial grade microfibre, while India can process the raw fibre efficiently but can’t grow hemp at scale due to regulatory restrictions.

Fast forward 19 months, and loads of hard work, our pilot project was complete—transforming raw hemp exported from Western Australia into textile-grade microfiber in India.

BushWeave–Hemp is our proof of concept.

Support Australian Growers

The project aims to spotlight the amazing growers of industrial hemp in Australia!

We’re keen to raise awareness about this incredible crop and its tremendous environmental benefits. At the same time, we want to address some of the challenges that have been holding back the growth of the hemp textile industry in Australia, such as misinformation, legislative hurdles, and limited processing infrastructure—that is hampering the potential growth of valuable hemp fibre.

Let’s work together to unlock the full potential of hemp fibre.

From the get go we were supported by Gary Rogers—an award-winning builder of hemp homes and the founder of Hemp Homes Australia—who walked us through his processing facility and its operations that process the harvested and retted hemp into hurd for home building and raw fibre suited for textiles in Margret River, along with Georgina Wilkinson founder of Margret River Hemp Company who played a crucial role in facilitating the sale of 600kgs of their raw hemp for our project and crossed many hurdles to make our efforts possible. We thank the duo and appreciate them for being part of this journey.

Shipping our first batch of Western Australian hemp fibre to India was a moment that was both exciting and nerve-wracking for us. Being the first to break new ground, we encountered plenty of unknowns along the way.

After nearly a month of sailing the high seas, the raw Australian hemp fibre finally arrived at our partner processing facility in Surat, India!

Eventually in August 2024 the very first Spin-able Australian Grown Hemp fiber was processed by CANVALOOP (a fibre science company) in Surat, India.

For the first time grown in Australia Hemp Fiber as Yarns, Textiles, and Apparel is now a reality, with complete Traceability—Farm to Fashion!

We hope to share these ideas, concepts and possibilities with industry leaders and other stake holders to help build the Australian Hemp textile industry, Thank you!

“The textile segment dominates the global bast fibre market, accounting for 45% of the market share, equivalent to USD 1.44 billion in 2023. Hemp bast fibres are increasingly being adopted in the textile industry due to their superior strength, durability, and biodegradability compared to conventional fibres like cotton and synthetic alternatives.”

– Quote by Dr Omid Ansari