Unravelling hemp's potential

Source: nzherald.co.nz


SCOUTING: Isaac Beach, sporting a hemp briefcase, is looking for partners for a bigger industrial hemp trial in Hawke's Bay. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

With an MBA under his belt Isaac Beach went looking for opportunity.

The event manager, who worked several years with Rhythm and Vines, decided his opportunity was industrial hemp from the cannabis plant.

It is grown legally throughout New Zealand but not in Hawke's Bay. The New Zealand market is for its oil but he saw a potential for the fibre's insulative/building potential, filling an urgent need in social housing.

This week the Government announced a new law that would require retrofitting of ceiling and underfloor insulation in rental homes over the next four years. It would apply to social housing from July 1, 2016, and other rental housing from 2019.

Industrial hemp can be processed into foods, oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper, fuel and building materials. BMW lines the interior of cars with hemp fibre, making use of its higher than steel strength-to-weight ratio and environmental benefits.

Growing the plant requires a licence. Seed oil can be bought in New Zealand as a food item but not the seed.

"What is interesting around this debate is you can go into a store and purchase poppy seeds," he said.

"If you purchase 500g over-the-counter you can create a substance which is equivalent to 25mg of intravenous morphine."

This week Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew said New Zealand supported the sale of hemp seed food products and would discuss a standard next year.

Even if not allowed as a food source, Mr Beach said demand for oil alone would make it economic as a crop "but if foodstuffs open up it will provide the platform for local production to start".

Mr Beach said there was an opportunity to provide products for affordable, sustainable housing. Composite hemp stalks are used in construction overseas, such as filling in a timber or steel frame to become insulator and wall lining.

He started networking in New Zealand and internationally "because I knew that the intellectual property for housing did not exist in New Zealand and had to be created".

He said France, which was one of the few countries not to abolish industrial hemp, used stalk fibre for social house.

"There is a fantastic opportunity for New Zealand to move into that space."

His product-to-market strategy includes research and development alongside Crown Research Institutes, with support from Callaghan Innovation.

Wanting hands-on experience with cultivation led to a 2ha trial in Havelock North, planted in October and harvested late February this year.

The location was kept secret in case illegal cannabis was grown with the crop.

"That would have been a disaster because cross pollination would have lifted THC levels."

THC is the active ingredient that makes cannibis psychoactive.

With the support of stakeholders he got permission to grow the crop through the Ministry of Health, "an expensive process".

Once it rained it grew well without irrigation but it was harvested two weeks too late.

"The birds started attacking the plants and within a very short period of time there was a huge loss of seed. That was a very important learning curve."

The harvester required two "decent modifications"before the seed successfully collected. 
There are 35 bales of plant materials plus eight "defective" bales due to teething problems - the harvesting machine needed "two decent adjustments"to collect the small seed.

The harvested seed and fibre are due for testing, another expensive operation.
In April he traveled overseas with a potential investor, visiting hemp industries in Canada, United States, England, Germany, France and Belgium.

"The primary objectives were to identify opportunities for technology transfer to New Zealand and develop international relationships with key partners."

First stop was Colorado, which has legalised marijuana but not industrial hemp.

"I am in no way shape or form an advocate for the legalisation of marijuana. It is not as simple as saying that Colorado do it, because New Zealand has a completely different demographic.
"Everyone in Colorado has a similar interest and there is a lack of diversity across the population - particularly in Denver - so you are dealing with a different beast.

"What I am an advocate of is the use of any plant material to be use in the treatment of disease, particularly if they have strong scientific evidence of efficacy."

Marijuana dispensaries were heavily regulated in Colorado and the industry "booming".

"Federal law does not recognise it as illegal activity so the banking systems won't get involved. You currently have to deal in cash and that is a challenge."

In Canada 66,000ha is grown, much destined for the United States market. Some growers sow the frost-hardy crop in winter.

In England he attended a convention and looked at building applications.

In France he observed de-stemming machines that separate stalk fibre from leaf.

In Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium he attended conventions and visited value-added processors.

Throughout his trip he paid particular attention to combine harvester settings, so that plant and seed could be harvested separately in one pass.

Back in New Zealand he is seeking partners for a bigger trial.

"I think Hawke's Bay has the potential to succeed internationally with this type of agricultural crop because of people like Johnny Bostock and Kevin Bayley - individuals with vast experience in introducing organic crops.

"There is a real opportunity in organic industrial hemp because current demand for organic supplies cannot be met, particularly in Canada and the US. There is huge potential.

"With the current situation in social housing, interest in sustainable crops, sustainable building materials - all of that creates a mixing pot for the emergence of something great with industrial hemp."