Australian Hemp Farmers Look to Minnesota for Lessons

As different jurisdictions pass hemp cultivation laws in Australia, prospective farmers in the country are closely following industry events in U.S. states like Minnesota in order to learn valuable lessons and avoid making costly mistakes. The following are some of the issues of mutual concern in Minnesota and Australia.

Dwindling Commodity Prices

Aaron Peterson currently runs a family farm which dates back to the 1880s. The farm, which is located just outside Minneapolis, was initially used to grow grain crops, but Peterson’s grandfather switched to vegetables in order to remain profitable. Today, Aaron Peterson is looking at hemp as the crop which will keep the farm operational since what they have been growing is no longer profitable enough to sustain the farm.

Farmers in the Northern Territory in Australia also hope that switching to hemp cultivation will shore up their livelihoods since what they have been growing is no longer profitable enough to justify the hard work that farmers invest. The Northern Territory farmers are therefore watching how Minnesota’s first crop will fare on the market as they too gear up to grow their own.

Endless Red Tape

Unlike other crops, such as soybeans, which Minnesota and Northern Territory farmers were used to growing, hemp comes with a lot of bureaucracy that farmers must navigate before they can hope to reap the expected rewards. For example, Peterson had to undergo an extensive background check to confirm that he has never been convicted of a drug-related offense.

In the Northern Territory of Australia, the newly signed hemp cultivation law gives the Police Commissioner permission to effectively “veto” the applications of interested farmers who are deemed to have question marks about their criminal record.

Additionally, Minnesota farmers are aware that they cannot harvest their hemp until state officials have tested samples and confirmed that the THC content is less than 0.3 percent of dry weight. In the Northern Territory, the legal THC limit is 1 percent, so they have more wiggle room when compared to their counterparts in the U.S.

Weed Management

One of the biggest threats to hemp farming is weeds. Given that most farmers are targeting the lucrative CBD market, they aren’t allowed to use weed killers or other chemicals while growing hemp.

Minnesota farmers have resolved to use plastic mulch to keep weeds at bay, and Australian farmers will watch keenly to see how this goes during the first season of planting.

Fears About a Flooded Market

There have been reports of hemp farmers earning up to $12,000 for a ton of dry hemp in Canada where the crop has been grown for nearly two decades. Minnesota farmers want a share of this cake, but they are concerned that the price may come tumbling down once the market becomes saturated and the demand for the product levels off.

Since there are no solid statistics to go by regarding the current and future demand for CBD and other hemp derivatives, farmers can only hope that they will have earned a decent return by the time prices start falling. In Australia, the same concern exists and many farmers have seen this scenario play out with the other crops they have been growing.

For now, industry experts believe that farmers and other actors like Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) and Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTCQB: MCOA) are poised for good times because the hemp industry is in its infancy and hasn’t even taken off in many parts of the world.

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