This is the second article in a two-part series on Québec’s growing plant-based ingredient sector. Part one, entitled How One Region Is Rethinking What Counts as Agricultural Waste, looked at the region behind that growth and the organic hemp and oat farms of Saguenay Lac Saint Jean. This article turns to the demand side and the industries actually buying these ingredients.
Skincare brands and packaging engineers do not usually get grouped together, but both are quietly moving away from the same category of ingredient, materials derived from petroleum or mined minerals, and toward alternatives grown on farms instead. That shift is creating a real commercial opening for anyone who can supply plant-based powders at a consistent, ingredient grade quality.
Cosmetics is the more visible example. Talc, a mined mineral used for decades in powders and foundations, has faced years of safety scrutiny and litigation, pushing formulators toward starches and plant powders derived from corn, rice, and other crops as replacements, according to Let’s Make Beauty’s report, Talc Alternatives for Innovative Cosmetic Formulations. Grand View Research’s Natural Cosmetic Ingredients Market Report estimates the natural cosmetic ingredients market as a whole at somewhere between $7 billion and $11.5 billion depending on which research firm is counting, and Fortune Business Insights’ Natural Personal Care Ingredients Market report puts its growth rate at around 9% to 10% a year, driven by manufacturers actively swapping out synthetic and mineral inputs for plant derived ones.
Materials science offers a bigger, faster growing opportunity, though one with an honesty problem worth mentioning. Grand View Research’s Biocomposites Market Size and Share Report puts the market for biocomposites, which use natural fibers such as hemp or wood to reinforce or bulk up plastics, at roughly $41 billion to $47 billion in 2026, projected to grow at close to 17% a year through the early 2030s. Bioplastics overall are following a similar trajectory. But Lampoon Magazine’s reporting on hemp biocomposites has also pointed out that many products marketed as hemp plastic are still blends that contain a meaningful share of conventional petroleum-based polymer, not a full replacement for it. The direction of travel toward natural materials is genuine. The finish line is further away than some marketing suggests.
Beyond fibres used in composites, another opportunity is beginning to emerge. The overlooked fractions of the hemp plant, decortication fines (the tiny waste particles created during the mechanical processing of the fiber), harvesting chaff (dry, scaly outer casing) and fine hurd (lightweight, woody inner core of the industrial hemp stalk), have historically been treated as low or no-value co-products. Yet these naturally lignocellulosic (dry plant matter composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) materials may possess functional properties that could make them useful in cosmetics, personal care products and other biobased applications. Their commercial potential remains largely unproven, however, meaning that success will depend on extensive R&D, product validation and the ability to demonstrate consistent performance at industrial scale.
Oats provide a useful contrast. Oat-derived powders are already well established in both personal care and industrial applications. Country Guide and Future Market Insights point to an oat ingredient market growing at roughly 9% annually, with powder formats among the fastest-growing products and personal care among the fastest-growing applications. Unlike emerging hemp powders, oat powders already benefit from established demand and customer acceptance.
That difference in market maturity explains why La Chanvrière du Lac (LCL), headed by Paul Perrault, Ph.D., is pursuing a sequencing strategy rather than waiting for new hemp ingredients to reach commercial maturity. The company plans to generate near-term revenue from organic oat powders while using the same micronization (process of reducing solid material particle sizes down to the micrometer or sub-micrometer range) platform to develop and validate a next generation of hemp powders derived from agricultural co-products and processing residues. In effect, it is building a stable business around proven markets while investing in the innovation required to open entirely new ones. The same platform is designed to expand into additional organic agricultural biomasses produced in the region as new ingredients are validated.
“Our vision is to build the missing link between organic agriculture and high-value manufacturing. By transforming agricultural co-products and processing residues into functional ingredients and using established organic oat markets to finance the development of hemp powders, we are building a business that is both circular and commercially sustainable.” – Paul Perrault, President LCL
The bigger picture is that plant-based powders sit at the intersection of two trends that are not going away anytime soon. Cosmetics and personal care companies are replacing mineral ingredients, and materials companies are seeking alternatives to petroleum-based inputs. Both trends are backed by real market data rather than aspiration alone. For a platform like LCL’s, built on organic hemp and oats grown close to where they are processed, the opportunity lies in proving it can produce ingredient-grade powder at the consistency, cost, and volume that buyers in these industries actually require, a test that plays out in purchase orders and repeat business rather than growth projections.
