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Historically significant
A Jersey company has become the first to legally produce CBD oil from hemp flower in the British Isles. It’s a historically significant event as this is the first-ever British company to receive a license to harvest hemp flowers for CBD. The license will allow the company to harvest, process, and store the hemp flowers in order to produce CBD extraction. It’s the first to lose a UK hemp license issued in the British Isles for the purpose of CBD production destined for the food, nutritional, and cosmetic markets.
The new development will allow Jersey Hemp to produce an estimated 30-40 tonnes of dry hemp a year with a respectable CBD concentration of 3-5%.
A company spokesman said, “We anticipate this will allow Jersey Hemp to be able to compete commercially on a level playing field with international producers in China, Eastern Europe and the Americas, where all CBD sold in the UK is presently grown and manufactured”.
“Jersey Hemp has been cultivating and processing industrial hemp for three and a half years, and this year’s harvest will be its third cultivation CBD balm for UK sport and the first to include the flowers.”
Growth for the economy
Senator Lyndon Farnham, Jersey’s Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, and Sport and Culture expressed that he was very pleased that the Government of Jersey has granted the license to Jersey Hemp. [It] “represents a significant opportunity for the island’s economy, allowing us to begin cultivating and processing hemp for the extraction of CBD – a growing market, both in the UK and internationally.”
“Extracting Jersey-produced CBD will allow the island to take its place in this fast-developing sector, supplying controlled and reliable CBD SEX lube products with strong British Isles provenance.” There is “real potential in this area, and the issuing of this licence signals our clear intent to position ourselves as a centre of excellence in CBD production, research, genetics and intellectual property” explained the Senator.
British hemp farmers are frustrated
Meanwhile, UK-based hemp farmers are currently facing a number of frustrations – mainly that they are only allowed to harvest hemp straw – and legally have to leave behind the leaf or flower which is used to produce CBD oil. East Yorkshire Hemp Farmer Nick Voase discloses that a valuable part of the flower is ‘simply going to waste’.
“So the bit we’re throwing away is the part of the plant that the CBD has been extracted from. It frustrates me somewhat that all Wholesale CBD-producing companies in the UK are allowed to bring leaf from flower in from abroad but we can’t produce it at home. All the UK produced products, it’s either coming from Eastern Europe or America and most people don’t realise.”
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