Agri Fibre Industries

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Investment interest grows as work starts on processor full story...

Hemp hauls in funding full story...

Firm is in for the long haul full story...

Disgruntled users urged to smoke out thieves full story...

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Investment interest grows as work starts on processor

Hemp hauls in funding

By LUCY ARDERN IT may have been the last cab off the rank, but Agri Fibre Industries was more than happy to get the money any way it came yesterday when Federal Member for Hinkler Paul Neville announced a grant of $210,460 towards setting up a hemp industry in Bundaberg.    Agri Fibre Industries director John Hall, who is also Crop Tech director, said the money would mean the company could fast track construction of a pilot processing plant for hemp.    "We are hoping to have the plant virtually ready to go in the first few months of the year," he said.    Agri Fibre Industries, which applies for the funding in January, was the last of nine projects in the Wide Bay region to receive funding from the Sustainable Regions Program this year.    Mr Neville congratulated the Agri Fibre Industries team and applauded their vision in developing an alternative agricultural industry.    Mr Hall said once the company had	the pilot plant up and running, it could more closely define what the market was looking for.    "We will be sending fibre to potential customers and getting their feedback," he said.    Mr Hall said the company was planning to produce 30 tonnes of fibre in the next six months and a couple of tonnes of oil.    "We have adopted a cautious approach to getting this off the ground," he said.    Bundaberg should have a fully-operational commercial hemp plant in 2005.    It is expected that at least 20 jobs will be directly created and the industry will provide extra income for many farmers.    Agri Fibre Industries chief executive officer Jim Hall, who is John's brother, said the company was excited about its recent success in plant breeding.    "We have plants that are 2.5 to three metres in height," he said.    The company is aiming to enhance the grain and fibre possibilities of the plants.
GROWING FUNDS: Jim (left) and John Hall celebrate receiving funding for the hemp project. Photo: ROBYNE CUEREL    hemp2212
NewsMail 23rd December 2004

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Firm is in for the long haul

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Disgruntled users urged to smoke out thieves

Tanya Moore DOBBING in a drug dealer is not something marijuana smokers would normally do.    But after several thefts from legitimate hemp farms at Bundaberg, police hope that is exactly how smokers will react if they discover their dope doesn't give them the high for which they paid.    There have been six reported break-ins at Department of Primary Industries-approved hemp farms in the Bundaberg area, about 400km north of Brisbane, over the past 18 months.    The hemp farm plants are specifically modified to contain less than 1 per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the property that gives the "high" effect associated with marijuana.    A police spokeswoman said a normal cannabis plant contained a THC level between 3 and 15 per cent but the plants stolen last week at Bargara, on Bundaberg's seaside, were less than 0.1 per cent.    "So the plants that have been stolen have actually had that (the THC) removed from them and that's what gives you the euphoric effect," she said.    More than 100 mature cannabis plants were stolen from an Agri-Fibre Industries plantation on Seaview Rd, Bargara.    The plants, stolen between 1pm Thursday and 8am Friday, ranged from 1.2m to 1.8m in height.    Agri-Fibre Industries chief executive officer Jim Hall said the thieves either didn't realise the cannabis had been modified or they weren't telling their customers.    "No one is going to get anything out of this," Mr Hall said.    "The THC level of this is .02 per cent. You'd get more out of smoking your lawn. Somebody must know something about it."    He said the thefts were having a damaging effect on the fledgling

NO high allowed...Agri-Fibre's Jim Hall with his hemp plants. industry at a time when cash-strapped cane farmers were looking for alternative viable crops to plant.    "This is an opportunity for a lot of farmers to actually diversify and value-add to their products," Mr Hall said.    In last week's theft, thieves stole about 85 per cent of a new variety of cannabis plant.    "The worst part of it is probably thousands of dollars worth of new varieties are gone," Mr Hall said.    "That break-in has probably put us back 12 to 18 months."    Police believe last week's thieves may be selling the modified hemp as standard-strength cannabis.    A police spokeswoman said while it was illegal to possess cannabis, Crime Stoppers was an anonymous operation.    She urged anyone who was aware of sub-standard marijuana in Bundaberg to dob in their dealers.    "It's actually illegal to purchase and be in possession of cannabis, but the cannabis they've actually bought has been modifed," she said.    "If they think that the products they've bought, that they are not getting the effect...they should call Crime Stoppers."

The Courier-Mail Wednesday September 15, 2004