James Greany’s experiment could mean farmers see game-changing returns on profitless marginal land
The windblown and rain doused hillsides of the Dingle Peninsula might be the last place you’d expect to find the iconic variety, but a young Kerry-born entrepreneur is looking to change all that.
As 22-year-old James Greany tells it, hemp could be the most profitable crop in all of Ireland if the plant’s potential is fully realised. And its not just a matter of pocket change – the scorned shrub could sell for ten times the price of Ireland’s next best vegetal offering, the spring bean.
Now you might be rolling your eyes – selling drugs is (in a short-term way) supremely profitable – but the specific variety James is concerned with produces almost negligible amounts of THC – the psycho-active chemical that drug users use it for. While medical cannabis is typically between 20% and 30% THC, the Finola species of hemp is only around 0.2% concentrate.
Of particular interest to James is the unique fibre extracted from the stalk of the plant. His search for more sustainable clothing led him to discover the lesser-known special properties of the herb. Thus in 2016, his first business venture, Skyscraper, was born. The thread from hemp is in fact extremely durable and strong, while also needing fewer hazardous chemicals for its processing. Its applications are vast – clothing, fuel, insulation, bricks, the list goes on – and it goes without saying that it bypasses the sweat-shop-child-labour supply chain of many cheap cotton products that abound in our global markets today.
Skyscraper’s venture into selling planet friendly products, including hemp, soon took James down the rabbit hole of the plant’s production and processing. His imagination captured, he established Irish Hemp in 2021 and began a pilot on a plot of land at Maharees, near Castlegregory. The results were astounding, though not unexpected – James had done his reading – hemp grew superbly in the poor soil and wet climate.
“We wanted to find something that was a little bit different because everyone was doing the same kind of stuff but much of it in my opinion was lazy – simple enough things that were a little bit environmentally friendly but not really,” said James.
“Once I came across hemp online there wasn’t a lot being done with it, so then we really had to start from scratch.
“Hemp was always a challenge to work with because there was a lack of suppliers and experience but it was the over all best material.”
James, accredited with Rising Star in Sustainable Products by the All-Ireland Business Foundation
Arriving at the plot on day, with the crop in full blossom, James was slightly frightened by the transformation of the place. The rich flowers had attracted swarms of bees which darted around the abundant field.
“When we went down there it was just hundreds of them. It was the most amazing sound,” he said.
“It actually flowers twice a year, so the bees absolutely love it.”
Though the harvest from the pilot project was never sold, the profit from properly grown hemp crop could be prolific. Just the fibre from the stalk could be worth around €1,500 per acre James says, while processing the flower for CBD oil could add another €1,500 to €2,000 per acre. Multiply that with the possibility of harvesting the valuable crop twice a year – planting in May and again in late summer – and you’ve hit the jackpot.
So where’s the catch? Though things are moving fast, Irish Hemp has yet to produce any product yet. The thorn in James’ side is regulation – or the lack of it. Due in some part to nascent Irish hemp industry, worth around a paltry €50,000, being concerned with CBD production, regulation falls under the restrictive purview of the Health Products Regulatory Authority.
The upshot is the very slow processing of mandatory hemp growing licences and gallic shrugs when any agricultural issue is raised. Ordinance survey maps must be drawn up of the growing area, a requirement waved in traditional agriculture, and the documentation is mountainous. James says the regulation of hemp farming needs to be transferred to the Department of Agriculture for the industry to grow.
“It would speed up the licensing process because at the moment its all very manual…they just need so much information that in my opinion is not necessary,” he said.
“You’re dealing with people who are just not interested…they’re looking at maps and seeing if the site is suitable…its not their department really.
“It almost as if when they made it legal to grow hemp in 2014, they made the laws and then never looked at them since.”
James still doesn’t know if it legal to set up at hemp processing plant despite numerous enquiries by himself and his lawyer. No one can tell him because the laws basically don’t exist yet. While the EU and UK have established regulations and significant hemp production industries, Ireland lags behind. It’s still illegal to grow the plant if its CBD content is over 0.2% but in Europe the ceiling is 2%. For James this is the difference between being able to harvest the hemp’s flowers, boosting yields by another €2,000 per acre, and having to dispose of half the plant.
Councillor and Dingle resident Robert Brosnan has been following James’ project and is excited by its potential. However, regulations need to be overhauled if the industry is to spread its wings.
“The regulations are really hampering a lot of possibilities, so the ministers need to get involved in clarifying and making proper regulations that are fair to everybody so that these opportunities can be pursued and ensure something for the next generation going forward,” he said.
“There’s a big opportunity for farmers and for young entrepreneurs like James to develop jobs in an area where we need full time to jobs, because a lot of our jobs are seasonal and a lot of people have to become unemployed because they’re working in the hospitality sector.
“We’re losing a lot of native Irish speakers in west Kerry where the remaining roots of the language are still living. To lose generations because they can’t find jobs in the area they grew up in is just tragic.”
With much work needing to properly germinate the sector, James remains optimistic. Local farmers are “very interested” in the project, eyeing the crop for its low initial investment and its miraculous ability to grow in the rugged Dingle terrain. In a few months James hopes to announce Irish Hemp’s first product and begin trading soon thereafter.
It mightn’t be too long before high slopes of the peninsula provide more deserving returns for the hard-working local farmers. There’s every chance the auburn hillsides might develop a rich sheen of green in the years to come.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme