MANITOBA A MAJOR GROWER BEFORE CROP BANNED

High yields, variety of uses lead to high hopes for hemp

Rask Klagenburg has some high hopes for hemp. The Selkirk-area farmer
thinks the 30 acres where he's testing the recently legalized crop could
make his entire farm of 2,100 acres more efficient and profitable.

"If it works out OK and it will be better paying crop than wheat or canola,
there will be a lot of interest in it from Manitoba farmers," Klagenburg
said of his two-to three-metre-high plants. "It's a learning experience. If
I make some money, that's great. It's a new crop and it looks promising."
It's still too early to tell how successful hemp farming will be in
Manitoba, but many seem to agree it has a significant upside.

While canola is considered an expensive crop to grow and wheat isn't much
of a money-maker, hemp could be a high-yielding crop. It also has a number
of applications, including hemp oil for cooking, or for burning in
automobile engines, and hemp fibre for paper, clothes and particle board.

The Consolidated Growers and Processors Canada Ltd. (CGP) a group of North
Americans and European investors is presently a two-day forum on hemp today
and Saturday and Centennial Concert Hall. The Affair, which is expected to
attract up to two hundred participants, includes tours of hemp crops around
southern Manitoba and presentations by eighteen hemp experts from around
the world.

Douglas Campbell, General Manager of Winnipeg-based CGP, said, "that there
are currently 27 farmers who have included more than 1200 acres of hemp
among their crops this year. And if things go well, there could be
thousands of additional acres allotted to hemp next year. "We're very
hopeful that we can find a way to produce hemp economically so it can
compete with imported cotton," Campbell said. "Most of the textile people
we've talked to in the industry say if the price of hemp is competitive,
they'll buy it because it is very durable and it can do thousands of
blends." He added that farmers could gross in excess of $400 dollars per
acre, putting hemp on a par with canola, and malting barley and making it
more profitable than feed barley, feed wheat and feed oats.

Barry Prentice, an associate professor in the agriculture and food science
facility at the University of Manitoba, plans on taking one of the tours
himself to satisfy both his own curiosity and professional interest. "I
think that it is an interesting new industry, for Manitoba and we have to
see how viable it is," said Prentice who is also director of the U of M's
transport institute. "It can be rotated in with other crops to help break
disease cycles but we have to look at the length of time to harvest it,
labour input, the cost of equipment, what crops to replace and can we get
critical mass of production to sustain the industry."

He noted that Manitoba used to be one of the major growers of industrial
hemp before it was banned 1930s. Because farmers are currently forbidden
from growing hemp there is a huge market to exploit south of the border.
"That's our ace in the hole," Prentice said. "There is a large market for
hemp, because of its notoriety. Wearing a hemp shirt is cool. "If we can
get started here first, we're here for the long haul. But I think the U.S.
will grow it eventually."

A local supply would have other benefits for the local market, such as
eliminating hemp imports from China, and making use of nearby oil crushing
facilities.

E-mail: Pona@freepress.mb.ca

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski