Race to be leader in Australian hemp industry: Hemp Association of Tasmania

The sale of hemp food products was legalised in Australia last month and Mr Schmidt said Tasmania was now in a race against other states to establish itself as the industry leader.

“We will encounter some major competition, no doubt, from the mainland and overseas and so we’ll need to position ourselves and promote ourselves very effectively,” Mr Schmidt said.

“It’s just a matter of getting established as soon as we can …  to lay the foundation for a really stable and solid industry for growth.”

RELATED: Hemp food now legal in Australia

Hemp has been grown in Tasmania since the 1990s but there’s been a recent surge in production that saw the number of hectares of hemp grown double from 150 to 300 last season.

The Hemp Association of Tasmania has been working to foster that growth and Mr Schmidt said one of the key priorities in the next six months was to develop a unique branding proposition for Tasmanian hemp.

“That’s the most important objective to get us sort of into the marketplace and established before our competitors do,” Mr Schmidt said.

RELATED: Certification for Tasmanian hemp

The Hemp Association of Tasmania has also dropped the word “industrial” from its name to reflect its broader focus now that hemp food products can be sold.

It’s also hunting for new members, particularly wholesalers and processors, and plans to post regular updates of hemp crops on social media to help educate the public about what’s involved in growing hemp.

One of the new players in the industry is Chris McKenna, who planted eight and a half hectares of hemp in November.

Mr McKenna’s family has been farming in the North-West for three generations and he said the decision to grow hemp was all about diversification.

“We can’t rely on what we’ve always been doing,” he said.

“There’s too many competitors coming from overseas with cheaper produce.”

Mr McKenna said Tasmania was well placed to be a leader in the Australian hemp industry due to its good growing conditions and clean, green image.

“Because of our quality assurance and high quality of product, there’s plenty of people who will buy Tasmanian hemp over other states and other countries’ hemp,” he said.

“That’s already been the way of things for other crop as well.”

Mr Schmidt said the Hemp Association of Tasmania planned to approach the government for “seed funding” to help the organisation with its plans to grow the industry.

Minister for primary industries and water, Jeremy Rockliff, said the government would continue to work with the association “to promote industry growth throughout the supply chain”

“(We) are confident that industrial hemp has a bright future in contributing to our target to grow the value of Tasmania agriculture to $10 billion per annum,” he said.

Mr Rockliff said the government had already put in a range of measures to help the industry.

“This included leading the nation with special purpose industrial hemp legislation, streamlining the process for growers and being the strongest advocate for the successful federal approval for hemp in food,” Mr Rockliff said.

“As a result this season Tasmanian farmers have approximately doubled the area licensed to grow hemp and we are seeing investment in new processing facilities.”