PRODUCERS GEARING UP FOR HEMP BOOM

BRITAIN'S hemp producers feel that after years of battling bureaucracy they
may finally be on the brink of a boom - and can count the Queen among their
customers.

Industrial hemp saw its main markets dry up a century ago even before being
banned as a member of the cannabis family, but was once so crucial to the
navy that King Henry VIII made it a compulsory crop to safeguard supplies
for making sails and rope.

'We've felt a little bit tied up in bureaucracy. We're getting there but
we've had to fight every inch of the way," said Ian Low, director of
Hemcore, the biggest UK hemp company.

Industrial hemp was banned until 1993 even though it contains a mere 0.2%
of THC, the main active ingredient of the narcotic. Hemp growers still need
a licence to farm it, and have had trouble separating public perception of
it from its narcotic relative.

Producers argue that its environmental benefits and commercial
opportunities could help wildlife and revitalise farming and, although its
original uses in paper and cloth are now small-scale in Britain new
technologies could employ it in a whole range of applications.

Hemcore recently gained the prestigious Royal Warrant for its hemp
horse-bedding after five years of supplying it to the Queen's stables but
sees a potentially more important use in the car industry.

Industry figures show car makers used 10,000 tonnes of plant fibre -
including hemp - in 2001. It acts as an insulator against sound and cold in
door and roof panels.

Hemcore already supplies hemp to German car makers BMW and Mercedes, and
estimates demand could be in the hundreds of thousands of tonnes by the end
of the decade.

Government figures show 2,500 hectares were grown in Britain in 2001. This
is still minute compared to the 2million hectares of wheat but Hem-core
alone is planning to increase the area devoted to hemp by half this year.

Others in the industry say a hemp boom could benefit the rural economy and
help it to climb out of the slump caused by the BSE and foot and mouth
animal diseases.

'It could revitalise the farming economy," said Derek Bielby of the
Yorkshire-based Hemp Union, which makes hemp clothing and products, and
grows and processes its own crop.

The Suffolk Housing Council finished two houses made largely of hemp last
year, and is monitoring how they perform.

Richard Scales, a partner at the architects' firm that designed the houses
said tests were proving positive.

Sarah Yearsley, of Sussex-based hemp food firm MotherHemp, said the seeds
were another key element of the crop, as they contained all the essential
fatty acids used by the body as building blocks for protein.

But growers and users of hemp point mainly to the crop's environmental
credentials as its chief advantage.

The National Farmers Union say the crop is ideal fix cleaning up the soil
as part of a rotation - its long roots help to condition the soil when it
has been damaged by other crops, and to break up hard-packed earth.

Mr Bielby said the crop is hardy, can be grown anywhere and outgrows weeds.
"It doesn't need pesticides and herbicides," he said. 'This is a golden
opportunity for farmers to use a sustainable resource."