Hemp harvesting and processing

Summary

Australia has the potential to be a leader in hemp production, however the crop is only marginal due, in part, to the lack of machinery to economically produce viable products from the hemp fibre and hurd on a largescale. This project aims to develop a process, and modify machinery for the economic harvesting, decortication and packaging of hemp on a large scale.

Program

New and Emerging Industries

Research organisation

Agrico Produce Pty Ltd ATF The Rennie Marketing Trust

Objective summary

The project objective is to establish a fully automated process and machinery for the economical harvesting, processing (decortication) and packaging of hemp on a large-scale, on farm, so that:
(i) hemp becomes a viable and profitable crop for Australian farmers;
(ii) Australian hemp hurd and fibre becomes available on the Australian market; and
(iii) the value proposition of hemp being a sequester of carbon with a low environmental footprint is retained through removing freight and transportation involved.
The newly developed fully automated process and machinery will be available for Australian hemp stakeholders via licensing Agreements through Outback Hemp and/or through the provision of contract services.