Hemp growing in the Republic of Korea

Summary

Hemp is a major fiber crop in Korea and is grown on both upland and paddy. The fiber is stripped by hand and made into durable work clothing worn by the majority of the rural population.

The area cultivated to this crop has been more or less constant for the past 13 years. Production in 1958 was 6,735 metric tons of raw fiber which was grown on 9,475 hectares. The value of the fiber produced was equivalent to US $4.9 million and was made into an estimated 28.6 million square meters of cloth valued at US $61.5 million. It is estimated that one third of the population wear hemp clothing during the summer season.

The yield of hemp per unit area is not satisfactory, but can be increased through improvement in present fertilizer practices and replacement of the present local variety with either the higher-yielding Japanese variety Tochikee or a hybrid of this variety with a common local variety.

The use of water retting instead of steam retting would result in a hemp fiber that could be processed into industrial fabrics by the existing flax mills. This might create a commercial demand for the fiber and reduce flax fiber imports.