Vasse hemp seed growers to start Asian exports

WA hemp seed products could make their way to Chinese shores in just six months after one of the State’s first growers of the commodity secured funding to make their exporting dream a reality. Vasse Valley Hemp Farm were today announced as one of 18 successful recipients of the State Government’s Access Asia Business Grants, aimed at helping small and medium enterprises to build and maintain competitiveness in Asian markets and contribute to WA’s economic recovery from COVID-19. Grower Bronwyn Blake said the $10,000 windfall — which they will match — could be a “game changer” for their blossoming business and fast-track the first imports of WA hemp seed into Asia. “We’re very excited,” she said. “One of our goals for 2021 was to start looking at exporting and be exporting by the end of the year. This grant will streamline the process and bring it forward six months. “It’s given us confidence in our business.” WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan said it was “fantastic to see a homegrown business like Vasse Valley Hemp eyeing international markets for their product”. “We’ve put a real effort into growing WA’s hemp industry over the last four years,” she said. The South West-based, family-run business was one of the first to get its hemp licence, putting a crop in the ground in 2015, before putting hemp seed on the table following its legalisation for human consumption in November 2017. It has been a meteoric rise since, with their roasted range — which includes a dukkah and crumble — released in late 2018 now on the shelves of more than 180 stores across the country. Passionate about the industry and its future direction, Mrs Blake and her husband Chris helped the industry find its feet as founding members of industry bodies iHempWA and HempGro. And they believe that with the right processing facilities, the industry could boom. Lack of processing facilities has proven a major hurdle for the fledgling industry in WA, but major headway has been achieved in that space in the past 12 months. Last year they received $50,000 to develop WA’s first large-scale commercial hemp seed processing facility through the State Government’s Regional Economic Development Grants program and were hopeful an industrial hemp processing facility in Margaret River would be up and running this year. “Once that’s available, then the industry can really take off because the demand is there for the growers. At the moment a lot of people have tried growing but they have no one to sell to as the processing facilities aren’t there.” The duo — who will harvest their fifth crop next week — said that while they were one of the first hemp seed growers, they were still learning. “We’re still figuring it out,” Mrs Blake said. “Every season is different, we’ve tried lots of different varieties.” With WA’s hot and dry summers a contrast to the cooler, wetter summers of Europe, where the majority of the world’s hemp supply is grown, Mrs Blake said they were looking for a variety which could handle the heat. “We’re still trialling different French varieties,” she said. “They’re good for seed production and have quite a short growth cycle so there’s the possibility of getting two crops in a year. We haven’t done that, yet we’ve always stuck to one, but we might trial doing two at some stage in the future. “There wasn’t a lot of information about it because of the demonisation of it,” Mr Blake said. “So we kind of fumbled our way through it and worked out what’s best for us. A perfect crop you’re pulling a tonne per hectare — that’s great season, great variety, everything ideal — but because we’re still finding our feet we’re anything from 250k per ha to 500kg/ha.” Things are looking sunny this year, with heavy November rain a welcome reprieve from a dry 2019 and setting the scene for a bumper 500kg/ha crop. The Blakes first marketed their products at a weekly stall at the Margaret River Farmer’s Market and have big goals for 2021, not only taking their product global, but expanding within Australia and adding new products. They have also purchased a new seed cleaner, which they will operate as a mobile service for other small growers.