Canadian industrial hemp growers, especially on Prince Edward Island (P.E.I), have been lobbying their provincial and federal government to allow them to grow hemp cultivars that have not yet been approved but hold the potential for yielding hemp with CBD levels similar to what their counterparts in the U.S. are growing.
Phillip Jennings, who grows hemp on both P.E.I and in the U.S., says that he and other P.E.I farmers have been writing numerous letters to lawmakers so that Canadian farmers can be put on the same footing as their American counterparts.
Jennings explains that the Secretary for Agriculture in the U.S. issued an exemption to U.S. hemp farmers allowing them to cultivate hemp varieties that have not yet been certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That exemption has allowed American farmers to access and grow hemp varieties which can yield higher levels of CBD once processed, and this means that the farmers stand to gain more since the price of hemp depends on how high its CBD content is.
Jennings wants the agriculture minister and the health minister to sit together and issue a similar exemption for a number of years while Health Canada vets and certifies seed varieties. Such a decision would level the playing field for Canadian farmers who are competing with U.S. farmers.
Jennings explains that the current certified varieties available to farmers on Prince Edward Island and other parts of Canada can yield a maximum of 5 percent CBD and yet farmers in the U.S. have varieties with the potential of 16 percent CBD concentration.
Changing to varieties similar to what is available in the U.S. would enable Canadian farmers to triple their earnings from the same number of acres used to grow hemp.
The low CBD yield of the cultivars in Canada isn’t only affecting farmers. Processors have also taken a hit as their revenue is drastically reduced by the costs of extracting such a limited amount of CBD oil from the low-yielding plants grown.
As a result, some of the processors have decided to suspend growing hemp this year as they wait for the government to certify cultivars with a higher CBD yield potential.
When contacted on this matter, Health Canada said that they are engaging hemp industry actors in a bid to keep reforming the hemp regulations without running afoul of the Cannabis Act.
As things stand, experts are of the view that hemp industry players like Wildflower Brands Inc. (CSE: SUN) (OTCQB: WLDFF) and Canopy Rivers Inc. (TSX: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF) may start sidelining Canadian hemp in favor of the U.S. plants that have more CBD.
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