Speaking Tuesday at Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods in Winnipeg, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lawrence MacAulay, announced an investment of $330,550 to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA). The investment will help to develop industry grading standards to ensure Canadian hemp products are known globally as being of the highest quality.

“Our Government's investment and recent changes to hemp regulations is providing the Canadian Hemp industry the tools they need to get more of their world-class crops into Canadian foods and other products," said MacAulay. "This is helping to capture new and exciting market opportunities ahead, while creating well-paying middle class jobs."

As part of the new cannabis legislation, the Government of Canada is updating the industrial hemp regulations to allow the industry to harvest the flowering heads, branches and leaves of the crop immediately. The government says these changes will open new revenue source and market opportunities for hemp producers by enabling the sector to research the most efficient and economic ways to capture the full value of the hemp plant.

“The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance was extremely pleased with the support of AAFC’s Agri Risk Initiative under Growing Forward 2," said Russ Crawford, CHTA President. "The Food Safety Project, conducted in 2016, was a collaboration between the CHTA and Agri-Neo Inc. focused on determining safe and cost-effective prevention and mitigation techniques for the control of pathogens in industrial hemp.”

Seeded hemp area in Canada reached over 138,000 acres in 2017, with 25,000 of those acres grown in Manitoba. Canada exported $93 million in hemp food and fibre last year. From January 2008 to November 2017, there were 452 products using hemp as an ingredient launched in the world and over 54.7% of hemp-containing products launched used hemp protein as an ingredient.

The CHTA is a national not-for-profit organization that represents over 260 growers across 9 provinces and promotes Canadian hemp and hemp products globally. Established in 2003, the Alliance represents those involved in Canada’s hemp industry. Members include farmers, processors, manufacturers, researchers, entrepreneurs and marketers.

Tuesday's announcement was part of Minister MacAulay’s “Growing Canadian Agriculture” tour.

 

Send your news tips, story ideas and comments to jgiles@goldenwestradio.com