How an Alberta facility is using Ukrainian seeds to unlock hemp's true potential

Nestled inside a processing plant in Bruderheim, Alta., lie sacks of hemp seeds from the Institute of Bast Crops in Ukraine.

The institute, the country's national academy for agrarian sciences, is in northeast Ukraine, a region that was under Russian occupation last year.

In an effort to help preserve and grow the institute's work, the seeds were brought over by the Canadian Rockies Hemp Corp., 60 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

To get the seeds to Canada, the institute hired Hungarian truck drivers to go through Russian checkpoints and eventually into Poland and then Germany.

"They're extremely resilient people and it's amazing what they're able to do even through these tough times," said Aaron Barr, CEO of Canadian Rockies Hemp, which has become one of the largest hemp processors in Canada since opening last fall.

The Ukrainian seeds will be offered to local farmers as they are well-suited to grow in Alberta, producing the more fibrous industrial hemp, which can be split into different components through a process called decortication. 

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Fibre can be turned into thread for textiles and hurd can be used to make animal bedding. 

Hemp can be made into compostable plastics, vehicle door panels, dashboards, pulp, paper and hempcrete, which is similar to concrete. 

"The hippies have been right about this product for years," Barr said. 

"It's been touted as kind of a miracle plant."

Health Canada licenses and regulates the industrial hemp industry. The regulatory body issued 1,050 permits in 2021, up from 542 in 2018. Alberta cultivated more than 8,000 hectares of industrial hemp in 2021, more than any other province. 

Industrial hemp refers to any part of the cannabis plant, where THC concentration is less than 0.3 per cent. Cannabis for recreational use can be 30 per cent THC. 

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