Hemp Inc. Showcases Agricultural Crops for 2016

Hemp Inc., Las Vegas, Nev., USA, executives this past week showcased the company's 2016 agricultural hemp and Kenaf crops, comprised of 420 acres of Kenaf across Franklin, Nash, and Bertie counties in North Carolina. Executives visited a few of the Kenaf crops and talked to the farmers growing the crops. 

Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc., has been on site to document the progress. "We're extremely proud of our Kenaf grow this year. We have three farmers we are currently working with growing 420 acres of Kenaf this year and all of these farmers, along with many other farmers, expect to grow hemp next year," said Perlowin.

David Schmitt, COO of Hemp Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary, Industrial Hemp Manufacturing, LLC (IHM), headquartered in Spring Hope, N.C., has been overseeing the Kenaf grow, as well as the whole progress of getting Hemp, Inc.'s multipurpose decortication facility in Spring Hope, N.C., fully operational. According to Schmitt, the 420 acres of Kenaf should yield between 4.5 and 5 million lb. of Kenaf.

A video showcasing the dramatic footage of the hemp and Kenaf grows is available online. 

Kenaf (hibiscus cannabinus) is an annual, non-wood fiber plant that is indigenous to central Africa. Kenaf is a plant in the Malvaceae family also called Deccan hemp and Java jute. It has been likened to okra and cotton and typically grows 12 to 18 ft. tall in a six-month growing season. The raw fiber has been known to grow well in many parts of the U.S. and has been considered an eco-friendlier way to make paper without cutting down trees. According to DavesGarden.com, "uses of the fiber range from paper, grass mats, fiberglass substitutes, animal bedding, oil-absorbent materials, chicken and cat litter, animal forage, particle board, and potting soil, to name a few."

If Hemp Inc.'s Kenaf grow yields as much as 5 million lb., the company could be looking at anywhere between $3 million and $12 million dollars in revenue, depending on what the Kenaf will be processed as. If processed for Lost Circulation Material (LCMs), this year's Kenaf grow could yield anywhere from $9 million to $12 million in revenue. If processed for absorbent materials, earnings could reach between $3 million and $4 million. While these figures are not exact, executives expect them to be close.

"Last year, we had excessive rain, which caused a lot of delays. We can't control the weather, but this year looks very promising. Kenaf grows until the first frost kills it. Then we let it stand until it's fully defoliated. We do this to ensure as many of the nutrients go back into the soil as possible. This cuts down on fertilizer expenses for the next crop. Once the Kenaf is fully defoliated, we can cut it, but we have to make sure the moisture content is within the 10% range. If it is, it's ready to be baled," said Schmitt. 

According to Schmitt, it is ideal to bale between December and February, but of course, that depends on the weather. "We're hoping to bale this year around November or December," said Schmitt.

"It's been very interesting documenting the grow. I personally visited four of the 15 fields of our Kenaf crops. The first field I visited was about 100 acres grown by one of the same farmers as last year. The Kenaf was definitely thicker than it was last year and seemed to be a big overall improvement over part of the crop last year. The second field was about an hour and fifteen minutes East of our multi-purpose industrial hemp processing plant in Spring Hope. The 42 acres of Kenaf in this field has grown about 10 ft. tall and the stalk is very thick as well. The third Kenaf field, consisting of about 50 acres of the 420 acres, has a soybean crop right across the street that some would consider 'a crop of the past.' Kenaf and Hemp are the future," said Perlowin.

"The fourth field I visited was about 75 miles from our processing facility and consisted of about 22 acres out of the 420 acres. We've engaged farmers to grow hemp next year once the North Carolina Commission sets the rules and regulations on growing hemp in the state. We are hoping to grow as much as 50,000 acres of hemp in North Carolina, next year. That's not a promise, but we'll see how everything goes," said Perlowin.

Hemp Inc.'s 53-acre joint venture hemp grow in Tonopah, Nev., can also be seen online in the group’s two most recent videos. The footage of this industrial hemp field presents a very dramatic and impressive field of industrial hemp grown close together, similar to the Kenaf, oftentimes referred to as "a sea of green" in the industrial hemp industry. The other industrial hemp field, in which Hemp Inc. is a sponsor, is a total of six acres and shows a higher CBD strain grown much further apart than the "sea of green" industrial hemp.

"It is clear from these two hemp videos that we are now in the experimental and research phases of farming industrial hemp. We are growing different kinds of strains under various conditions with our research primarily focused on how much income 50 acres of industrial hemp can yield as well as how much income a small investor can make by investing in an industrial hemp farm growing operation. These are the necessary bits of information that need to be codified in our new emerging potentially multibillion dollar industry. It all starts with the farmers, the investors with the farmers, and the economic realities of this new clean green agricultural and industrial American revolution," said Perlowin.

Perlowin continued, "We gained the trust of the North Carolina farmers with our first Kenaf grow. This second Kenaf grow is turning out better than the first and now the farmers in North Carolina are eager to grow industrial hemp next year. Also, I couldn't be happier with the progress of getting our decortication facility operational."

As demand for hemp continues to increase, Hemp Inc.'s solid infrastructure of its commercial-sized, multi-purpose industrial hemp processing facility will be able to supply the demand. With over 70,000 sq. ft. over nine acres, Hemp Inc.'s multipurpose industrial hemp processing facility is the only one in the U.S. of this scale and magnitude, capable of processing 40 million lb. of industrial hemp a year. With its milling operation, Perlowin says the company's processing facility can easily double, triple, or quadruple the amount of acres that can be processed. Once the initial infrastructure is completed, further expansion becomes easier than setting up the initial infrastructure that is currently in the final stages, thus providing greater expansion capabilities to process even more industrial hemp. Executives say this will be all set to happen at a very rapid pace, as needed, and actually attain their goal of growing 50,000 acres of industrial hemp.