How a central Alberta facility is using Ukrainian seeds to unlock hemp’s true potential | CBC News

Nestled inside a processing plant in Bruderheim, Alta., lies sacks of hemp seeds from the Institute of Bast Crops in Ukraine. The institute, which is the country’s national academy for agrarian sciences, is in northeast Ukraine, a region that was under Russian occupation last year. 

In an effort to help preserve and grow the institute’s work, the seeds were brought over by the Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation, located 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

To get the seeds to Canada, the institute hired Hungarian truck drivers to go through Russian checkpoints and eventually into Poland and then Germany. The corporation’s facility is now one of the largest hemp processors in Canada since opening last fall. 

“They’re extremely resilient people and it’s amazing what they’re able to do even through these tough times,” said Aaron Barr, CEO of Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation. 

The Ukrainian seeds will be offered to local farmers as they are well-suited to grow in Alberta, producing the more fibrous industrial hemp, which can be split into different components through a process called decortication. 

WATCH | Central Alberta facility has big plans for hemp

How hemp is becoming Alberta’s ‘miracle plant’

Hemp is an adaptable, sustainable and low-waste product that can be turned into almost anything. It also grows incredibly well in Alberta. We spoke to one company that’s hoping to turn the common crop into a cash cow for Canadian farmers.
This separates the fibers from the hurds, which is the woody inner core of the hemp stalk. 

Fiber can be turned into thread for textiles and hurd can be used to make animal bedding. 

Hemp can even be turned into compostable plastics, vehicle door panels, dashboards, pulp, paper and hempcrete, which is similar to concrete. 

“The hippies have been right about this product for years,” Barr said. 

“It’s been touted as kind of a miracle plant.” 

Industrial hemp 

Health Canada licenses and regulates the industrial hemp industry. The regulatory body issued 1,050 permits in 2021, up from 542 in 2018. Alberta cultivated more than 8,000 hectares of industrial hemp, in 2021, which was more than any other province. 

Industrial hemp refers to any part of the cannabis plant, where THC concentration is less than 0.3 per cent. Whereas, cannabis for recreational use, can be 30 per cent THC. 

LISTEN | Here’s how an Alberta facility is filling in the growing demand for industrial hemp

In a field outside the facility, there’s 25,000 bales waiting to be processed, with another 15,000 on the way. 

“We call it hemp mountain,” Spencer Tighe, chief operations officer, said. 

“For most farming operations you wouldn’t see this many bales.” 

Not only does the Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation supply local farmers with seeds to grow hemp, but it also harvests the crop. 

“They’re doing the things normally the farmer would do,” said Chris Allam, who has a farm near the town of Redwater and grows crops for the Canadian Rockies Hemp Corporation. 

Last year, hemp made up about 10 per cent of Allam’s total crops. He also grows wheat, canola and salad beans. 

Hemp is a good crop to grow, Allam said, because it’s relatively straightforward, requiring little fertilizer. It also has a large tap root that breaks up the soil and the leaf litter rejuvenates the soil. 

Since the plant can be used to make compostable products and replace single-use plastics, it’s highly attractive, he said. 

“It’s probably the answer to pollution.” 

Local economic boon

By next year, the facility plans to ramp up production by processing up to 50,000 acres of hemp and producing 50,000 tonnes of fiber and more than 100,000 tonnes of hurd, employing around 100 workers. 

Approximately 1,400 people live in Bruderheim according to recent data from the Alberta government.

“That’s just fantastic news,” Karl Hauch, the mayor of Bruderheim, said about the company’s growth. 

“Paying taxes, employing people, creating spin-off businesses, those are huge pluses for our community.”