Canada’s Hemptown Clothing Inc., a provider of environmentally responsible natural fibres and bio-technical eco-textile research, has announced that it has secured $1.4 million of equity financing in order to begin trials on a new advanced fibre, Crailar, which could be used as an alternative to cotton.

In 2004 the company secured a collaboration agreement with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to expand its research with the biotech development of an enzyme that would unlock the economic potential of industrial hemp fibre as a cost competitive alternative to cotton. The name of this technology is called Crailar.

Crailar is being developed as an advanced, organic, eco friendly natural fibre, capable of a multitude of applications due to its strength, softness and flexibility. The company has begun working on licensing agreements to bring the new fabrics to market through a select number of top level manufacturing firms.

Jerry Kroll, CEO of Hemptown, commented, "We have produced some very exciting results in the laboratory recently, and will now produce larger amounts of Crailar fibre which will be tested as spun fibre for textiles, as well as shorter fibre for use in advanced natural composite materials.”