HEMP FARMERS HIGH ON PROFITS

MANITOBA’S HEMP industry is taking off --- BIG TIME.

Last year, 27 farmers planted approximately 1,700 of hemp, the first
time the crop’s been planted commercially in 60 years.

This year, 125 Manitoba farmers are contracted to plant more than
12,000 acres of hemp seed, said Douglas Campbell, general manager of
Consolidated Growers & Processors Canada.

And with farmers grossing almost $500 an acre, that works out to an
industry worth $6 million in this province alone.

Across the Prairies, CGP contracted farmers are planting a total of
16,000 acres of hemp, a 24-fold increase over last year.

“Everybody’s hungry for more money,” Campbell said, adding that hemp
is bringing in twice as much as some traditional cereal, oilseed and
pulse crops.

Darrell McElroy, a hemp farmer near Darlingford, said he planted 30
acres last year, but this year he plans to see about 95.

“When I first planted it I didn’t know too much about it, but now I
really think it’s going to go a long way,” he said. “With this product
there’s thousands of uses you can do with it. I compare it like
buffalo to an Indian---you use the whole plant for so much……I fell the
market is there.”

Campbell said CGP also has offered to purchase to purchase all the
hemp seed and stalk farmers can produce in the next three years.

Hemp is marijuana’s drug-free cousin, but both plants come from the
bamboo family.

It has a number of applications, including hemp oil for cooking or
burning in automobile engines and hemp fibre for making clothing,
particle board and paper.

It is also being used in the production of door panels by some
European auto makers.

Although hemp is grown in a number of countries, most notably France,
the Netherlands and Germany, the total world production of
approximately 100,000 acres is less than half of what the market can
absorb.

CGP hopes to build a $15 million, 25 employee hemp processing plant in
Manitoba.

There are no such facilities in Canada.

All the crop is exported overseas or to the United States for
processing.

“We want to do so much processing as possible at the source,” Campbell
said.

A decision on where to build the plant will be made by the end of next
month, he said. After that, it will take about 18 months before it is
up and running.

If farmers can get their seeding done in May, this year’s hemp crop
should come off the fields during the second week of September and
first week in October.