Panda Biotech celebrated its grand opening last week at the 500,000-square-foot hemp fiber processing facility in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Jacobsen first reported on Panda Biotech in 2019 when the company began pursuing the goal of high-capacity hemp processing.

Panda’s facility is the first of its kind, as a standalone processor with over 10-tons-per-hour decortication capacity. The company purports it to be the highest capacity hemp decortication facility in the world.

Panda’s location is unique at this stage of the hemp industry’s development. Shipping raw hemp straw over long distances will not be practical, but Panda will be a trailblazer insofar as the economics of commodity hemp straw and what markets will support.

Hemp production in Texas is in its infancy. Growers there have made considerable progress trialing genetics adapted to below 35 degrees north latitude, where Panda’s…