The aim of the Australian Industrial Hemp Conference (AIHC) from its first edition has been to enhance co-operation and collaboration. We believe the only way forward for the industrial hemp industry is for growers, processors, businesses and researchers alike to work together in a cooperative manner.

Over the journey of the AIHC we have tried to bring presenters to our event to promote this idea and help expand the industry. And so, the fifth Australian Industrial Hemp Conference has the theme ‘Growing Together’.

This year’s event will have a slightly different start. We think we need to highlight some of the great achievements the industry has made since the first Conference (in March 2018), which was held just after industrial hemp was legalized in November 2017. To achieve this, we are inviting each state association to survey its membership and provide the story or stories around their greatest achievement(s) since the first Conference. And to tell us what is still needed for industrial hemp to realize the potential that we all know it has.

We know already of some great achievements but would really like the state associations to join and provide perspectives to the rest of Australia that we are an industry that really needs to be taken seriously, especially as ramifications from climate change take hold.

The Australian Government’s National Climate Risk Assessment identifies agriculture as one of the country’s highest‑risk sectors, with impacts on yield stability, water availability, pest pressure, and regional viability. And whilst Australia’s innovation system performs well at farm‑level trials it remains weak in supporting the post-harvest processing and standards development that the industrial hemp industry requires. Hemp’s value lies less in raw biomass than in integrated value chains (fibre and hurd processing, hempcrete, food ingredients), which are capital‑intensive and regionally anchored.

Our two national bodies the Australian Industrial Hemp Alliance, and the Australian Hemp Council have also been invited to report on their objectives and achievements at a national scale. And it also goes without saying the Conference will also feature international perspectives from Europe, Asia and the Americas.

With the HempToday and AHC Australian and New Zealand report available, updates on Federal and State Enquiries, and information from Agrifutures Australia’s Industrial Hemp Variety Trials we are at a terrific turning point for the industry. With collaboration and stakeholder commitment we should be in a position to make some real positive plans to move the industry forward and propel the scale up required to meet the demand that is out there.

Click here for the Conference Programme as it develops and sign up below to receive conference notifications.

We aim to make the AIHC 2026 the most relevant event for the Industry’s future and the organizing Committee can’t wait to catch up with you all again at this great event for the Australia Industrial Hemp in 2026 and beyond.
Robert Bell – AIHC founder