Menu Close

A hemp industry update from the Tassie Hemp Co

By Tim Schmidt | August 2025

Tasmania is now re-emerging as the powerhouse of hemp seed for food production in Australia.  The massive stockpile from 5 years ago has disappeared and there is now a national shortage.  The 2024 harvest was from a mere 34ha of hemp seed food crops, being the lowest area since 2017, the 2025 harvest jumped to 300ha and still that was not enough.  The new season coming up, is forecast to be greater than 300ha.

An urgent issue for the hemp seed food industry is the expiring of the spray permit for bromoxynil, an essential broadleaf herbicide which is required to help maintain profitable yields.  Without this tool for production, the industry will quickly fold.  This permit will expire early next year, so next year’s planting is at risk, we can only hope that the AHC will be successful in requesting an extension for the permit until work undertaken by Agrifutures produces the data required for the longer term permitted use of bromoxynil.

The Tassie Hemp Co is looking to work with local wine producers and the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in running hemp mulch trials to show the beneficial impact on production and quality of wines using hemp mulch.  There had been work conducted here 20 years ago on hemp mulch for pink lady apples which showed a distinct improvement in fruit quality, we hope to show the same for Tasmanian wines.

We are very fortunate to have Hemp Harvest processing our hemp seed here near Deloraine, they have been perfecting their processes and are producing above average yield results, which is an important improvement on our industry viability in Tasmania.

5 people standing in a crop of hemp.
Checking out the crop. L- R: Tim Schmidt, Phil & Kiley Warner, Arthur Wajs and Tim Crow.
Stephanie Cameron, Tim Schmidt and Senator Richard Colebeck in Tim's last season crop.