Maciej Kowalski: Be Your Own Supply Chain

About this episode

Maciej Kowalski discusses building a vertically integrated hemp company and the benefits of controlling the supply chain.

This week on the Hemp Show we talk to Maciej Kowalski, founder and CEO of Kombinat Konopni, a hemp company in Northern Poland. We hear how he built a vertically integrated company — from planting, harvesting, processing, all the way to manufacturing finished goods — and why he would rather control the system rather than rely on supply chains that don't fully exist. "Everyone is saying about the need to build a supply chain. Yeah, that's one approach. The other is be your own supply chain," Kowaski said. His pragmatism is often guided by a healthy skepticism. "If you have a dozen intermediaries between you and the manufacturer of raw materials, there is a geometrically raising probability of someone in this chain being not honest." We talk about his farming practices and why his farmers do not need anything more than a rake and a baler to harvest the hemp stalks, because they practice "winter retting" where the hemp is left standing throughout the winter. By spring the stalks are brittle enough they can be knocked down and windrowed with a standard rake and then baled like any other crop. "Just leave the plants throughout the winter in the field — they're just going to separate on…

People in this episode

Host: Eric Hurlock

Guest: Maciej Kowalski

Topics covered

• supply chain
• hemp farming
• vertical integration
• winter retting
• manufacturing

Keywords

• hemp
• supply chain
• vertical integration
• winter retting
• farming practices

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kombinat Konopni

Places: Northern Poland

More episodes of Industrial Hemp Podcast

• Meet Ursa Alta, The New Low-THC Fiber Cultivar from Cornell AgriTech · June 10, 2026 · 37 min
• Can the Goodness of Hemp Act Fix What's Broken in Hemp? · June 5, 2026 · 34 min
• Meet NHA's New Director Sully Sullivan · May 29, 2026 · 29 min
• Farm to Flow: Trace Femcare and the Future of Hemp Fiber Tampons · May 21, 2026 · 48 min
• Stacking Up with Renewabuild Great Plains · May 13, 2026 · 25 min
• Steve Groff and the Great Wall of Hemp · May 7, 2026 · 39 min