FARMERS PLANNING HEMP FACTORY

Dauphin Group Hopes To Build This Summer

A group of farmers is hoping to build Manitoba's first hemp processing
plant in Dauphin.

Construction of the $15-million plant, which would turn hemp fibres into
products such as insulation, has been five years in the making, but
hopefully ground can be broken this summer, said Joe Federowich, chairman
of the Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers Co-op.

Federowich said the Manitoba government was on board fairly quickly, but
the federal government was slower to react.

But he said recently "the doors have swung wide open" since a new
administration in Ottawa began to look at the future blueprint for agriculture.

"I think the federal government is now showing a real commitment," he said.
"They want to see farmers take local initiative."

"We've been doing our homework," he said. Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers
Co-op, a group of 59 farmers, went to work on a sustainable business plan
in the fall of 2000.

The proposed processing plant would give local hemp farmers a place to
bring their crop. The hemp, which is a drug-free marijuana with almost no
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol -- the cannabis narcotic), would be turned into
fibre and sold on the open market.

Federowich said a business prospectus should be finished in a month's time.

Rey Pagtakhan, minister of Western Economic Diversification, said the
Dauphin plant is being considered for federal funding.

"It looks like an exciting opportunity and we take it very seriously."

Federowich hopes Dauphin can be the hemp capital of Canada. "Our target
goal is not just one facility," he said, noting the goal is to build
similar plants every 100 to 200 miles.

"Once you build the first one and it's up and running and proving itself,
others will be built quite quickly."

Federowich said the economic spinoffs for the Dauphin-area would mean up to
25 jobs for the community, not including people needed to haul the crop to
and from the plant.

He said the project is crucial for hemp farmers in rural communities
struggling to make ends meet. "Our rural communities are dying a slow death
and this may breathe new life into them."

The RM of Dauphin and City of Dauphin continue to support the project 100
per cent, said Dauphin Mayor Alex Paul.