Goal of 1 million cannabis plants
There could be 1 million medicinal cannabis plants in Southland in the next decade if Southern Medicinal’s momentum keeps on building.
From the former Mataura paper mill, the company is growing and processing medicinal cannabis and hemp.
However, last summer three Southland farmers and one Otago farmer bought hemp seeds to take part in a trial with the company.
Southern Medicinal executive director Greg Marshall said the farm trials returned 800kg per hectare, worth $150 per kilogram, of high-percentage cannabidiol (CBD) hemp.
There was widespread interest from farmers in growing medicinal cannabis and hemp, he said.
‘‘It’s been so heartening for me to run into these dairy farmers who are so into it. The words I hear most from these farmers is it’s time for a generational shift.’’
Southern Medicinal’s focus was for cancer patients, and Marshall wanted an oncologist delivering bad news to prescribe cannabinoids immediately.
A 2022 NZ Drug Foundation report found only 6% of people who use cannabis medicinally are getting it legally.
The Mataura operation is growing. A 10,000m2 factory at the mill houses the converted shipping containers, which serve as grow chambers, the drying areas and the processing space.
Across the road, in a building that used to store 10,000 tonnes of aluminium dross byproduct, is 30,000m2 of space that Marshall said would be used to process and dry truckloads of plants next season. Ten thousand plants were planted by the four trialist, and Marshall said they had sold out of their 50,000 seedlings for the coming summer.
The company is a partnership between Dunedin-based Natural Horticulture and Christchurchbased medicinal cannabis company Soma Group.
Marshall wanted to create ‘‘clusters’’ of farmers around the ones who took part in the trial – in the Catlins, Mataura, Waikaka and Clydevale – so they could learn from each other.
The four that got on board were pioneers, Marshall said.
Grant Scott has been farming for 25 years and never saw a crop as hardy as the hemp he grew last summer. Scott and his wife, Megan, took part in the growing trial, working with high-CBD seedlings from the mill, which is a few kilometres from their farm.
The Scotts saw an advertisement in a farming magazine about the trial and despite a summer drought and 60kph winds when they were planted, just under a third of the 1200 seedlings survived. There was a delay getting Ministry of Health licensing, but once they were planted they only needed some non-acidic fertiliser and a seaweed-based product to grow, he said.
They run a 400-hectare sheep farm, and Scott said the hemp plants were a win-win. They had looked at riparian planting, and now they would get a return from the hemp while the plants acted as filtration as well.
They had already put a deposit down for next summer’s seedlings, he said.