We Went Looking for Hemp Wisdom. Here’s What We Found

In late May, we headed to Slovenia’s Prekmurje region to meet with organic hemp producers and share experiences. We visited three very different farms, each shaped by its own land, tools, and philosophy—but all working toward the same goal: to grow hemp in a way that’s sustainable, independent, and future-ready.

The visit left us with new ideas and strengthened our confidence in the path we’re taking at LoginEKO.

Three Organic Hemp Farms, One Shared Vision

One thing all three farms had in common? A closed-loop model that puts the farmer in charge—growing, processing, and selling hemp products on-site or directly to end customers.

At Gorička ves farm (Ekološka kmetija Rengeo, Gorička ves), we saw how a modest family-run system can turn hemp and heritage grains like spelt and kamut into a full product portfolio. They’ve adopted a ridge-forming system using customized German equipment, sowing two rows per ridge to improve aeration and speed up emergence. From cold-pressed hemp oil to home-ground flour and dehulled seeds, nearly everything is processed on-site. They even converted a camper van into a mobile store, with shelves, a register, and a full product lineup.

At the other end of the scale was Dejan Sukič, whose 25-hectare organic farm impressed with its tidy fields, HACCP-certified facility, and readiness for agritourism. A founder of a regional organic cooperative, Dejan processes crops like soy, wheat, flax, and hemp with care and a practical mindset.

While our own model at LoginEKO spans more hectares and uses our own software to manage operations, the shared principle is the same: take responsibility for the full process. That’s where resilience begins.

Techniques, Tools & Tradeoffs With Hemp Cultivation

From DIY adapters to ridge-sowing machinery, the approaches to hemp cultivation were as diverse as the producers themselves.

Oliver Berden from Hempion showed us his self-built harvesting adapter—designed to collect flower, leaf, and seed in one pass. It’s ingenious but comes with a tradeoff: significant seed loss. That’s one reason we’re not heading down the CBD path ourselves.

Instead, at LoginEKO, we focus on grain and fiber production. For us, that means:

• Choosing the right cultivar for yield and quality. While most producers we visited rely on Fedora, we use Marina, which performs well in our rotation system.
• Planning the sowing time and spacing for optimal weed suppression.
• Inter-row cultivation at key growth stages.

It also means integrating hemp into a well-structured rotation system, not treating it as a one-off crop.

Processing Hemp

Processing setups ranged from handmade sifters and “garage mills” to well-equipped oil presses and grain sorters. While some setups were highly improvised, the creativity and autonomy were impressive.

We had open conversations about:

• Seed cleaning and dehulling,
• cold-pressing oils from hemp, flax, pumpkin, and more, and
• dry-sifting CBD trichomes without solvents or chemicals.

At LoginEKO, we’re still exploring what post-processing could look like for us—but we know one thing for sure: any system we adopt needs to support full traceability.

Hemp Challenges We All Share

While the tools, techniques, and scales of production varied from farm to farm, everyone we spoke with pointed to similar systemic challenges.

Regulatory uncertainty was a recurring theme, especially when it came to selling dried flowers, CBD extracts, or even long hemp fiber. Both EU and Serbian legislation remain unclear or inconsistent, leaving producers unsure how to process or market parts of the plant beyond seed. On top of that, the equipment needed to harvest and process flowers or extract CBD is expensive and often unavailable locally, which makes scaling up a serious hurdle.

And even when the final product is good, whether it’s oil, fiber, or flour, many local buyers still don’t fully recognize or reward quality. Despite all that, what stood out most was the persistence and creativity of these producers, and the shared belief that hemp has a real future—if we keep working together to shape it.

It’s clear that to move hemp forward, we need better market support, and stronger farmer networks that help each other avoid costly mistakes. (As Oliver put it: “If you don’t mess up sowing, harvesting, or drying—hemp isn’t that complicated.”)

Our Hemp at LoginEKO

Back home, our own hemp field (MU-50) is progressing well. We grow hemp as part of a long-term multiyear crop-rotation, with minimal inputs, for food-grade grain and quality fiber.

Every step is logged in our farming software, and each harvest will be traceable in The Origin platform—just like all our other crops. We’re not trying to reinvent hemp; we’re just making sure it fits into a sustainable system that can scale.