Hempco Food and Fiber has obtained a development permit from the County of Leduc for its hemp processing facility in Alberta, Canada.

The company started the installation process for operation of its hemp seed food, hemp nutraceutical and hemp fibre processing equipment at its new site.

The new facility is expected to be ready by June.

Spread across 56,000ft², the facility will feature a large parking space for staff members and an expanded truck yard for easy loading and unloading.

Hempco CEO Charles Holmes said: "Its the perfect location and facility for fulfilling our mandate of ‘whole crop utilisation’. We still have a lot of work to do, and more money to spend to get it running the way we want, and we will need to hire much more good people.

"The Alberta government has been very supportive. Edmonton is a fantastic resource centre for parts, services and skilled labour.”

The facility will have the capacity to annually process approximately 5,000t hemp seeds and produce 2,000t of hemp nuts.

It will also process nearly 20,000t of hemp fibre stock to produce 5,000t of hemp fibre and 15,000t of hemp hurd/shiv that will be stored at 20,000ft² warehouse located within the facility.

The company will process 2,000t of industrial hemp leaf and flower chaff.

"Its the perfect location and facility for fulfilling our mandate of ‘whole crop utilisation’."

In order to meet the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), as well as BRC international safety and quality control standards, Hempco has upgraded the floor sealant and replaced fluorescent lights with energy-efficient LED lights.

The manufacturing plant has a dedicated 4,000ft² clean room area that will be used for blending and packaging protein powders, food bars and hemp burgers.