Australian producers concerned about moves to set up a US hemp industry

By Belinda Tromp

Australia's hemp farmers fear they will be left behind by moves in the United States to kick-start a hemp industry there.

A bill recently introduced into the US Congress is aimed at removing a federal ban on hemp growing, and there's strong congressional support from farming states, including Kentucky and Oregon.

Non-drug hemp seed products are a popular food ingredient in the US but have to be imported from Canada and overseas.

Phil Reader, from the Industrial Hemp Association of Tasmania and a hemp grower at Longford near Launceston, says he's frustrated that government authorities in Australia are delaying a final decision on whether to approve hemp as a food ingredient here.

"If that goes ahead, if things aren't changed in Australia, we're well and truly going to be left behind the eight ball with development of the industry, because it means there'll be more producers out there, more people looking for export markets out of the US, so they

PHOTO: Phil Reader, president of the Industrial Hemp Association of Tasmania. (Rose Grant)

 

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