Top of the crops

With the UK’s first large-scale hemp factory being given the green light, Unyte CEO Jamie Bartley tells Cannabis Health why homegrown medical cannabis is on the horizon.

Unyte Hemp announced this week plans to create a £30m state-of the art processing plant in the East Midlands.

It will be the first of its kind in the UK, growing 5,000 acres a year, with the ability to produce 25 tonnes a day – 10 times the current market’s capacity.

Unyte describes it as the ‘hemp revolution’ with the potential to improve the health of the population and reduce the environmental impact of industries such as energy, construction and transport. Hemp grows in just four months and absorbs 15 tonnes of CO2 per hectare – 25 times that of the equivalent size of rainforest.

“Give me an industry that hemp can’t have a beneficial impact on,” said Jamie.

“It can decarbonise pretty much any sector.

“But it can’t just be about the carbon, the farmers need to have a commercial return for their crop and with this processing plant and the market identified we can give them that commercial return.

“We’re in the final stages of investment now and will be looking to roll out multiple other locations across the UK.”

Unsurprisingly, Jamie and the Unyte team are at the forefront of the push for the UK production of medical cannabis.

Unyte Medical was formed in 2018 after the media campaign for the legalisation of cannabis-based medicines.

They brought in specialists including Professor Mike Barnes, Hannah Deacon, and Jeff Ditchfield and began to examine what would need to be in place to grow, process, manufacture and distribute medical cannabis in the UK.

Under current legislation it is illegal for UK farmers to extract cannabinoid profiles under a hemp license in the UK. But Jamie believes a policy change is a ‘no brainer’ in the post-pandemic economy.

“At the moment we’re not allowed to extract cannabinoids to supply new CBD products in the market, but we’re really pushing for a policy change,” he said.

“The UK CBD market is worth £300million a year and growing – with the post-pandemic economic change and also Brexit, why wouldn’t we do this now?”

Under Unyte Medical, he has been working closely with the Isle of Man on the legislative framework for a large medical cannabis cultivation facility. It will allow the medication to be transported to the UK without import and export taxes as it is within the British Isles.

“Guernsey and Jersey have already changed their legislation and the Isle of Man is due to be rolled out in the next couple of months,” Jamie said.

“We’re looking to have the licence before the end of this year.”

He hopes this will pave the way for the UK government to follow suit.

“I think the Home Office will be looking at the Channel Islands to see how they are doing it, to see the pitfalls and how it pans out,” he said.

“It’s not a legislative change that’s needed here, the legal framework and the licencing system is already in place, it’s just a change in the Home Office guidance.”

He added: “We will look to cultivate here as soon as we can.

“As soon as we can get quality GMP approved products into the UK sector, it will allow much wider access to medical cannabis for a lot more people.”