After years of sporadic trials and a small rising space, a primary coordinated effort to construct a business industrial hemp worth chain is being promoted in New Brunswick.
The initiative revolves round a deliberate processing and packaging plant in Saint-André and an organized marketing campaign to recruit growers starting with the 2026 season, in accordance with Antonio Bramante of Montréal-based Décision de la Nature Inc., who’s main the initiative.
A flyer distributed to farmers described the challenge as a “new hemp farming alternative in Atlantic Canada,” inviting growers and regional growth stakeholders to study licensing, agronomy, and markets.
Purpose: 10,000 hectares
Bramante stated his group has spent 4 years assembly producers and provincial officers to construct momentum. The plan targets 10,000 acres of hemp in 2026, rising to 25,000 acres in 2027, with a part of the crop supposed for native processing on the Saint-André facility and the steadiness going to exterior patrons. All provinces in Canada grew a mixed whole 15,000 hectares in 2024.
Organizers say growers will obtain hands-on help and argue that the best barrier isn’t agronomics, however farmer hesitation: shifting to a brand new crop, new markets, and unfamiliar logistics. The technique positions hemp as a rotation crop that may diversify farm revenues whereas constructing towards regional meals, fiber, and biomass markets.
Whether or not hemp can scale in New Brunswick will rely upon its match inside current agricultural methods. Northern and western New Brunswick comprise a number of distinct farming zones that form the chance.
Fertile fields
Within the Woodstock–Drummond hall, the place grower outreach is concentrated, farms use deep, well-drained soils and rotate their acres by way of potatoes, grains, and forage crops.
Additional north, towards St-Quentin, fields sit at greater elevation with cooler temperatures, supporting grains, forages, and blended farm-forestry operations. The Belledune space, in contrast, has extra variable soils and traditionally much less intensive cropping exercise.
Hemp may combine into these rotations — significantly within the Woodstock–Drummond zone — however success will rely upon agronomy, selection choice, and timing inside a shorter rising season than Canada’s Prairies — the place most hemp is grown within the nation.
The dimensions of the imaginative and prescient stands in distinction to the province’s observe document. Authorities knowledge present 203 hectares of hemp in 2017, rising to ~448 hectares in 2018, with yields described as inconsistent. Newer federal licensing figures counsel exercise has dwindled to a couple hectares since.
