August 25, 1998

By Bob Boughner, The Daily News

HELP FOR HEMP INDUSTRY

$60,000 grant will fund non-woven fibre matting line for Kenex operation

PAIN COURT—Ontario’s small, but growing, commercial hemp industry received a financial boost Monday with help from a federal government grant. A $60,000 grant has been awarded to Kenex Ltd. under the Agricultural Adaptation Council’s Can-Adapt Program.

"As one of the first supporters of hemp within the federal government, I am pleased that Kenex is leading the way locally with this alternative crop," said Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Rose-Marie Ur. "The funding announced today will help process the 1998 crop, leading to a tripling of the acreage for expanding export markets." AAC will help fund a non-woven fibre matting line that will create a value-added product from hemp fibre for use in the textile, auto parts manufacturing and construction industries.

The new production line is just the start of hemp product development. Kenex plans to market 400 tons of hemp fibre or matting by the end of the year for various industrial applications with a target of 1,500 tons in 1999.

"This project will have a significant impact on Ontario’s economy," said Ralph Stephen, a director of the AAC. "The 2,000 acres currently under contract with Ontario farmers is expected to triple by the year 2000 while the processing facility will create jobs and require the development of new farm equipment."

"This year’s crop will create direct farm income of $2 million to the contract growers," said Ur. She said the project receiving the $60,000 funding will include a research facility to do fibre studies, oil seed fatty acid levels and possibly product development. "This is an opportunity to re-establish a crop formerly grown in Ontario, provide farmers with an alternate crop and enter a market with large expansion potential."

In the long term, she said, the project is expected to result in production of fibre, hemp grain and straw for sale in Canada and the U.S. "It will mean the diversification of crops in southern Ontario, an increase in direct farm income, with additional crop added to rotation, the protection of our natural environment, as hemp usage increases in textile, auto and construction industries with important replacement and great export potential."

Jean Laprise of Kenex said his firm was pleased to receive the financial assistance from CanAdapt. He stressed that it represents, however, a small percentage of the $1 million in the project by his company. Laprise said that so far Kenex has invested more than $4 million in the hemp industry.