With marijuana being a hot food safety topic debate, its cannabis cousin, hemp, has become an issue discussed between Australia and China. Consider the common saying, ‘quality over quantity’. China is the world’s biggest hemp growers. Australian hemp farmer, Colin Buckler, is taking the saying quite literally.
Being one of the first hemp farmers in Australia, Buckler predicts that in the near future, the Chinese market will receive Australian hemp products with open arms. Why? Because hemp in China is not up to the food grade standards.
After the Black Saturday bushfire five years ago, Buckler had to rebuild his home and company from scratch. This slowed his plans in capitalising in China. Now, he produces six to eight tonnes of hempseed oil a year, to hopefully meet the demands from Asia. (Korea is also interested in Australian produced hemp products).
As one would expect, there are strong government regulations. However, many producers slyly dodge such rules. Some new Australian hemp producers import hemp from China, but market their products as Australian certified… which it is obviously not. Furthermore, since Australian legislation still forbids the consumption of hemp, hemp products should only be for external use.
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