New Zealand fiber-materials venture shifts processing line to streamline production logistics

New Zealand-based fiber-materials company Rubisco is relocating its hemp decortication line as part of a broader strategy to advance a vertically integrated natural-fiber platform.

The company, which is backed by NZ agribusiness giant Carrfields, said it is moving the factory from Christchurch – the island’s largest city and a major logistics hub – to Ashburton. Both are located on New Zealand’s South Island, in the Canterbury region.

Thinking forward

Rubisco chief executive Guy Wills told Farmers Weekly the company has outgrown its original hemp-processing footprint, with demand for hemp fiber and hurd accelerating as manufacturers search for lower-carbon inputs for textiles, construction and composites.

The new Ashburton facility — located closer to the crop base and the farming network that supplies Rubisco — is expected to be operational by early 2026.

“The decision to move operations to Ashburton is both practical and forward-thinking,” Wills said, as it will reduce transport distances, cut emissions and locate primary processing at the point of fiber origin. Proximity to growers and increasing market pull for sustainable materials will allow the company to scale production and “continue to innovate,” he said.

Down the road

Ashburton sits roughly 85 kilometers (about 50 miles) south of Christchurch, down State Highway 1 through intensive agricultural country. Growers supplying hemp stalks are clustered around Ashburton and the wider Mid-Canterbury plains, so shifting the decortication line there places primary processing inside the production zone, rather than hauling raw stalks north to Christchurch for first-stage processing.

One of New Zealand’s largest agribusiness groups, Carrfields has been aligning hemp production, fiber processing and value-added manufacturing under one coordinated structure for several years.