Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Sydney-based Highland Hemp moves production off-island

By Chris Shannon
Source: capebretonpost.com



Quebec hemp crop yields 963 kg of cannabidiol oil for German customer

SYDNEY — A hemp manufacturing business originally set up in Sydney two years ago with plans to grow hemp seeds locally has turned to Quebec to cultivate crops as the company significantly alters its business strategy.
Highland Hemp Manufacturing and Exports is moving away from the use of hemp seeds as health food to producing cannabidiol (CBD) oil from the hemp plant for use by commercial customers.
Among its uses, the oil has been proven to manage chronic pain and is being studied for its effects on people suffering from seizures.
When Highland Hemp was awarded an industrial hemp commercial licence from Health Canada in March 2016 to produce hemp seed oil and related products, it was the belief of Sydney businessman Parker Rudderham that the best use of the crop was to harvest it, then cold-press it for its oil, which would be sold in capsules or whole oil in overseas markets.
Early on, the hemp crop was cultivated on two acres of land at the former coke ovens site near Open Hearth Park in Sydney, and on 60 acres in an undisclosed location just outside of Sydney.
It was sold as a health food product to customers for retail sale in Europe. A total of 22,000 bottles of hemp seed oil were shipped to the continent late last year.
However, Rudderham, who is not only the president and CEO of Highland Hemp but also owns and operates the Montreal-based Pharmacy Wholesale Services Inc., said he was looking at the best way to optimize growth in a sector that already has substantial worldwide competition.
Rudderham announced in February Highland Hemp had secured a large-scale $14-million order of CBD oil to an unnamed Brazilian pharmaceutical company. With that order now complete, a second order of CBD oil with a German company was assured in the fall.
He said it’s been a struggle to keep up with the demand, even as Rudderham has hired an independent contractor and rented a warehouse and is using a nearly 1,000-acre hemp crop in La Prairie, Que., located south of Montreal to fulfil the Brazilian order and now the contract with the German firm, which he also didn’t name due to proprietary business practices.
“Part of it has gone to Germany and we have another shipment that’s going … sometime in January to fulfil our purchase order,” he said in an interview last week.
“Quite frankly, as a business decision, there’s a lot more money and a lot more demand for the CBD oil.”
This year Highland Hemp has produced 963 kilograms of CBD oil for its German client. Rudderham said it’s sold between $5,000 and $8,000 per kilogram based on the quality of the oil.
The CBD oil is cultivated from a different strain of the hemp plant than the hemp seed. It does not contain the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) people associate with cannabis use to reach that euphoric “high.”
Hemp has lower concentrations of THC and higher concentrations of CBD, which decreases or eliminates its psychoactive effects.
Commercial production including cultivation of industrial hemp has been permitted in Canada since 1998 under licences issued by Health Canada.
The only presence Highland Hemp now has in Cape Breton is Rudderham’s office on Stable Drive across from Open Hearth Park. There are no full-time employees working out of his office. The company did grow a 46-acre crop in Inverness County last year to clear up back orders for the hemp seed oil product.
Meeting customer demand specifically with the CBD oil has proven to be a steep learning curve, he said.
“We actually had to buy some CBD oil from other growers to fulfil our orders.”
Rudderham said it’s difficult to predict when his company may restart cultivation of hemp in Cape Breton.
“We have nothing in the pipeline in terms of CBD oil production for Cape Breton in this coming year — not because we don’t want to, just because we’ve been so darn busy to try to get this thing off the ground,” he said.

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