Western Australian hemp company harvests bumper crop

By Hamish Hastie

March 6, 2019 — 5.33pm

One of WA’s largest ever industrial hemp crops was harvested this week and the company behind is now eyeing off exports.

This week Hemp Processors WA harvested 15 hectares just south of Margaret River to supply the wholesale food market in Perth.

Stephen Thomas of Hemp Processors WA.

State and national regulations are relaxing, allowing the use of industrial hemp in foods and medical-grade cannabis in pharmaceuticals, which is opening up markets for WA producers.

There are now potentially more than 90 licensed growers in WA.

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Hemp Processors WA expects their production to increase 5000 per cent in the next 12 months.

Hemp Processors WA founder Stephen Thomas said this year's crop was also being used to trial different hemp varieties before planting next year’s crop.

"We are expecting to sow between 500 to 1000 hectares,” he said.

In a WA first will be setting up a processing plant with specialist hemp machinery.

The company will take delivery of WA’s first ever seed sorting and seed de-hulling machine next week. Usually WA companies have to send their seeds to the east coast for processing or use more labour intensive methods.

“This machine will be huge for the WA industry and will make packaging for the edible market so much easier,” Mr Thomas said.

“In the near future we will also be purchasing a state of the art hemp decorticator, which turns the plant’s stem into fibre."

Mr Thomas said with the hemp industry gaining steam globally he was confident in its expansion plans.

“There are at least 50,000 uses for hemp. We are excited to explore the possibilities with biodegradable plastics used to make PVC pipes and plastic bags, fabrics for clothing, paper products, health foods, vinyls, carpets and floor coverings as well as other applications," he said.

"We believe every industry could benefit if it used hemp products to replace products or materials currently being used that are harmful to the environment.”

He said they were looking after local markets first and then would look to meet demand from Asia.

"Asia looks to Australia and especially the quality of our product, that's our long term goal. Because we're out of their season, we can fill their gaps," he said.

Mr Stephen moved to Margaret River 10 years ago running cattle.

He decided to get into hemp after attending a talk in the Margaret River civic centre.

"I thought you can make this into a serious industry for the whole state, he said.

"Especially farmers in the wheat belt who are having marginal years. The plant will grow anywhere."