Depressed Commodity Prices
Cause Explosion In Western Canadian Hemp Planting
– Too Much Too Soon?
See
Canadian
Farmers Get High Yields From Hemp Harvest;
24-Fold Increase In Acreage In Western Canada Over Last Year!
DEAland Farmers Find DEA Unyielding In Hate Harvest (Marijuananews note: The farmers in Canada, like their DEAland
counterparts, are hurting. Cannabis is well-know as a pain reliever. In this case, it
works by bringing very high yields in comparison with other crops, except tobacco, which
has its own problems. The question is whether the infrastructure to process the hemp can
grow as fast as production. To avoid these problems many farmers are growing under
contract to processors.)
WESTERN CANADIAN HEMP ACRES COULD BE HIGH AS A KITE
(Marijuananews note: I would like to propose a new category for the
Pulitzer Prize, the first column on hemp or medical marijuana without a marijuana pun in
its headline.)
April 20, 1999
From The Resource News
By Gord Gilmour
Winnipeg
(RESNEWS)—
Good returns to pioneer hemp producers and depressed prices for
traditional crops like canola and wheat are fuelling dramatic growth in that crop’s
production on the Western Canadian prairies according to industry watchers.
Bruce Brolley, a new crops specialist with the Manitoba provincial agriculture
department, says he’s estimating about 15,000 acres will be
planted in the province this spring - only the second year producers can legally plant the
crop.
That’s up from approximately 1,300 acres last summer.
The explosive growth concerns Brolley, who says it’s important that any production
jump be offset with market development.
"There’s an old saying that nothing fixes high prices like high prices -
people see a strong market and they jump in to service it," Brolley said. "We
want to make sure we’re developing a sustainable industry and if we grow slowly
we’ve got a better chance than by jumping from 1,300 to 15,000 acres in one
year."
Brolley also expressed concern that markets that have been touted for the crop may fail
to materialize.
"I’m not sure these potential markets will turn into actual [ones]," he
said.
Part of the Manitoba growth in hemp is fuelled by a recent announcement by Consolidated
Growers and Processors (CGP), a company contracting hemp acreage with producers, that they
would be building a hemp processing facility near the city of Dauphin in northwestern
Manitoba.
See
Sending The Right
Message:
$6 Million Hemp Processing Plant In Rural Manitoba "Sends a very strong signal to
farmers."
Doug Campbell, president of CGP, says the company will be increasing it’s
contracted acreage substantially in the three prairie provinces this spring.
"We had about 600 acres (under contract) last year," he
said. "We’re going to have over 18,000 acres this year. That works out to a
30-fold increase."
Campbell says about 80% of those acres have been contracted in Manitoba, with the
remainder in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Of the Manitoba acreage Campbell says the lion’s share will be within 100
kilometers (60 miles) of the plant site.
With the CGP plant announcement, it’s expected most of the growth in new acreage
will concentrate in the province of Manitoba, Brolley said.
Campbell agrees that at least in the short term that’s where the growth will be,
but says the other prairie provinces shouldn’t be counted out yet.
"It’s not that producers there can’t grow the stuff," he said.
"It’s just been a little slower to take off."
Ray McVicar, a new crops specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture
and Food (SAF) in Regina, says he’s expecting somewhere between 3,000 and 4, 000
acres to be planted in that province.
That’s up from an estimated 500 acres last year.
In Alberta Dr. Stan Blade, a spokesman for Alberta Agriculture, says roughly 2,500
acres of hemp are expected to go into the ground this spring.
Campbell downplays concerns about market instability that could accompany quick growth,
saying CGP has large scale customers lined up for its processed products.
End uses for the product include fiber going into pulp and paper, cardboard
manufacturing, auto parts and building materials. A separate facility at the same Dauphin
site will be dedicated to producing oil for the food and cosmetic markets.
"There’s tremendous opportunity in the big world-scale markets,"
Campbell said.
The Dauphin plant is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2001, though Campbell
says there is a chance construction will be completed by 2000.
Copyright: Resource News
|
Supported