MANITOBA A MAJOR GROWER BEFORE CROP BANNED

High yields, variety of uses lead to high hopes for hemp

Rask Klagenburg has some high hopes for hemp.

The Selkirk-area farmer thinks the 30 acres where he's testing the recently
legalized crop could make his entire farm of 2,100 acres more efficient and
profitable.

"If it works out OK and it will be better paying crop than wheat or canola,
there will be a lot of interest in it from Manitoba farmers," Klagenburg
said of his two- to three-metre-high plants.

"It's a learning experience. If I make some money, that's great. It's a
new crop and it looks promising."

It's still too early to tell how successful hemp farming will be in
Manitoba, but many seem to agree it has a significant upside. While canola
is considered an expensive crop to grow and wheat isn't much of a
money-maker, hemp could be a high-yielding crop. It also has a number of
applications, including hemp oil for cooking, or for burning in automobile
engines, and hemp fibre for paper, clothes and particle board.

The Consolidated Growers and Processors Canada Ltd. (CGP) a group of
North Americans and European investors is presently a two-day forum on hemp
today and Saturday and Centennial Concert Hall. The Affair, which is
expected to attract up to two hundred participants, includes tours of hemp
crops around southern Manitoba and presentations by eighteen hemp experts
from around the world.

Douglas Campbell, General Manager of Winnipeg-based CGP, said, that there
are currently 27 farmers who have included more than 1200 acres of hemp
among their crops this year. And if things go well, there could be
thousands of additional acres allotted to hemp next year.

"We're very hopeful that we can find a way to produce hemp
economically so it can compete with imported cotton," Campbell said.

"Most of the textile people we've talked to in the industry say if the
price of hemp is competitive, they'll buy it because it is very durable and
it can do thousands of blends." He added that farmers could gross in excess
of $400 dollars per acre, putting hemp on a par with canola, and malting
barley and making it more profitable than feed barley, feed wheat and feed
oats.

Barry Prentice, an associate professor in the agriculture and food science
facility at the University of Manitoba, plans on taking one of the tours
himself to satisfy both his own curiosity and professional interest.

"I think that it is an interesting new industry, for Manitoba and we have
to see how viable it is, said Prentice who is also director of the U of
M's transport institute.

"It can be rotated in with other crops to help break disease cycles but we
have to look at the length of time to harvest it, labour input, the cost of
equipment, what crops to replace and can we get critical mass of production
to sustain the industry." He noted that Manitoba used to be one of the
major growers of industrial hemp before it was banned 1930s.

Because farmers are currently forbidden from growing hemp there is a huge
market to exploit south of the border.

"That's our ace in the hole," Prentice said.

"There is a large market for hemp, because of its notoriety. Wearing a hemp
shirt is cool.

"If we can get started here first, we're here for the long haul. But I
think the U.S. will grow it eventually."

A local supply would have other benefits for the local market, such as
eliminating hemp imports from China, and making use of nearby oil crushing
facilities.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)