Executive Comment EDITORS NOTE
The theme for this issue is Innovative hemp products and it is great to see our New Zealand hemp producers bringing their food and fiber products to market .
Of special note is the October 2020 launch of Hark and Zander , who have global aspirations for their expanding range of hemp cosmetics .
But there is still an elephant in the room – CBD .
Dr Nick Marsh ’ s report highlighted the massive revenue potential for high value CBD based health and wellness products .
This is an exciting , consumer driven global market and we are well placed to leverage , both our reputation as a high quality primary producer and an abundance of exciting native bio actives to export high quality products to global niche markets and realise a potential export industry of $ 1.5 billion by 2030 .
We just need the nod from the regulator , we have the products , investment , manufacturing and distribution systems in place , it just needs to be turned on .
And in a post Covid , recovering economy we should be enabled , which is after all the objective of our 2006 low THC Industrial Hemp Regulations .
Editor
Marco Fantham news @ nzhia . com 021 0675710
Pioneers have subsidised the
New Zealand hemp industry for many years and even though not all parts of the plant are ' legal ' at least we have access to the hulled seeds , seed oil and fibre .
Once upon a time , hemp was a commonplace plant that grew in almost every part of the world . Hemp was used in fabric and textiles , rope and sails , food , medicine and much more .
Then decades of prohibition followed , when hemp was collectively banned because of it ' s naughty cousin , “ marijuana ” and it ' s commercial threat to the emerging , Nylon , Cotton , Wood & Paper , Petro-chemical and Pharmaceutical industries .
Hulled Hemp Seed was legalized again in 2018 in New Zealand , and the plant is returning all over the world in a big way . Currently , most of the hemp grown here is being used to make hemp foods and cosmetics . However , we ’ re also seeing many new hemp products appear , from hemp t-shirts to hemp meat .
In this issue we list the Top 18 Hemp Companies in New Zealand , and some of their innovative products .
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