The European hemp industry doesn’t need financial help – it needs regulatory reform.
That was the upshot of a discussion between two leading figures in the industry, Lorenza Romanese (managing director of the European Industrial Hemp Association) and Jamie Bartley (CEO of Untye Hemp Ltd).
The cultivation of hemp is tightly regulated across the European Union and in Britain, including rules which means the majority of the plan can not even be used in CBD production.
A consumer demand boom in the CBD sector has led to renewed interest in the crop but industry leaders say other uses – including textiles and construction – are still under-utilised.
Speaking at Prohibition Partners Live, Romanese called for the industry to be given a fairer and less restrictive legal framework in which to operate.
She said: “We don’t need money and in Europe we can already receive funds through the Common Agricultural Policy for farming just like if we were producing corn or wine – but my members are ready to not even receive that.
“They just want to operate and be able to use the whole plant and have proper legal certainty.
“We don’t need another reason to farm hemp…we don’t need money, we need peace.”
Bartley agreed, saying ‘we don’t need to any sort of subsidy for a British agricultural perspective, we just need some barriers to be removed’.
He added that the emphasis must be on ‘proving’ the crops uses to lawmakers and argued the sector ‘needs to get the correct information out there so people can understand how it will benefit their industry’.
Both agreed that the European hemp sector is in danger of getting left behind as deregulation in the US and Canada continues to boost their industries.
Romanese said: “We are not fighting for first or second place – we are looking for third place and that is going to be Europe or China.
“For the time being let’s survive and let’s try and get third place.”
Bartley said: “Prohibition means we have been very restrictive in terms of hemp and ultimately cannabis.
“Now it’s about trying to unpick that in a way that’s not seen as a u-turn.
“If we are not careful we will miss the opportunity of this wave that is coming globally.”
Bartley also said he expected interest in CBD and similar compounds like CBG from large multinational firms to increase and for it to have an impact on prices but said ‘there will always be a niche premium market like in any other sector’.
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