Welcome to the first newsletter from IHASA. It’s a pleasure to round up the latest happenings and keep you informed about the growth of the hemp industry in SA.

Winter is the time to start thinking about sowing hemp crops in South Australia in November. Sowing seed varieties need to be secured from interstate or overseas and farmers need to look at their crop rotations to fit hemp in their schedule.

Last April South Australia’s first commercial hemp fibre crops were harvested near Coonawarra. The summer being quite mild presented an unexpected challenge – the hemp decided to go to seed about 3 weeks earlier than predicted, so farming operations stepped up a gear and the cutting and baling for 75 hectares went into full swing. Unfortunately, the early harvest meant the hemp didn’t grow to its full potential but the crops still produced a respectable yield. Bales will be transported to a new hemp fibre processing plant in South Australia and eventually be made into construction materials – a fantastic beginning to a new industry.

Hemp food producers Good Country Hemp are processing cold pressed hemp seed oil and hulled hemp seed weekly and recently winning their first export order of South Australian grown and processed hemp foods. A 47 hectare paddock of dryland hemp will be sown in September near Naracoorte. If the rainfall continues like it has during the last few weeks the crop should be off to a great start when it’s sown.

The recent Hemp Fibre Forum at Deakin University was an important event to bring the multiple fibre processing projects developing across the country into one gathering. It was a good exchange of ideas and new technology and gave hemp stakeholders a valuable snapshot of the Australian hemp fibre industry to benchmark their own projects. It’s sure to become a regular event on the hemp calendar. See more below.