Spring Hope, North Carolina, April 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemp, Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP), a global leader in the industrial hemp industry with the largest multipurpose industrial hemp processing facility in the western hemisphere, announced today that the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC (IHM) has finished harvesting 200 acres of North Carolina-grown kenaf, planted just last year. The approximate 2 million pounds of harvested kenaf will be used to create Hemp, Inc.’s proprietary natural absorbent and Loss Circulation Material (LCM) products for the oil and gas well drilling industries.
Kenaf (hibiscus cannabinus, a cousin of hemp) is a non-wood fiber plant that has been likened to okra and cotton and typically grows 12 to 18 feet tall in a six-month growing season. The kenaf was grown by IHM’s strategic growing partner John Finch Farms in Spring Hope, North Carolina and will be processed at Hemp, Inc.’s 85,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Spring Hope, North Carolina.
The harvested kenaf will be used in the manufacturing of Spill-Be-Gone™, an oil spill cleanup product, and DrillWall™, a Loss Circulation Material (LCM). “LCM” is a term for substances added to drilling fluids when drilling fluids are being lost to the formations downhole. Notably, Spill-Be-Gone™ was one of the products used to help clean up wildlife during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
“Our first kenaf crop of 150 acres planted in 2015, in North Carolina, was harvested in 2016. That was a milestone. Now we’ve just hit another milestone with this 200-acre kenaf harvest. The process was long but well worth the time to ensure a high-quality harvest,” said Hemp, Inc. CEO Bruce Perlowin. Hemp, Inc. announced earlier this year that it had completed its first purchase orders for Spill-Be-Gone™, DrillWall™ and other products.
“This harvested kenaf will support the production of our environmentally-friendly products that provide a nontoxic solution to cleaning up spills and absorbing various materials,” said David Schmitt, COO of Hemp, Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary, Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC. “We are also proud to work with local farmers in order to meet the growing demand in the oil and gas well drilling industries for high quality, consistent, safe products.”
The hemp planting season in the state of North Carolina last year was delayed. According to Perlowin, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) took eight months to give the state its hemp growing permit which caused farmers across the state to either plant their crop late or not at all. Due to this unfortunate delay by the DEA, Hemp, Inc. only planted 550 acres of hemp last year. The late planting negatively affected the number of acres executives believed would yield a much more successful crop, for all the North Carolina farmers.
This year, however, will be a game-changer for Hemp, Inc. and North Carolina’s farmers. “We are already gearing up to potentially plant up to 25,000 acres of hemp this year as we continue to ramp up operations and expand our footprint in the market. As the tobacco crop continues to become a less reliable source of revenue for farmers, we are proud to empower small and medium size farms by introducing kenaf and most recently hemp into their crop rotation.”
