Growers no longer needed a license<\/a> to grow low-THC hemp in Aotearoa, though they were required to notify Police and the Ministry for Primary Industries before planting.<\/p>\n It was part of a suite of changes from a regulation review lead by the Minister for Regulation David Seymour, announced in Ashburton in December.<\/p>\n David Seymour at hemp business in Ashburton during a regulation review last December.<\/p>\n RNZ \/ Nate McKinnon<\/p>\n Government to loosen regulations for hemp industry<\/p>\n Now, the industrial hemp sector wanted smaller, non-commercial growers to give the crop a go to drive innovation and demand within New Zealand.<\/p>\n New Zealand Hemp Industries Association chief executive, Richard Barge said the group’s project was about growing the industry, in terms of people’s understanding of the plant and its possibilities.<\/p>\n “This opportunity is where innovation can really happen in that cottage industry or at home,” he said.<\/p>\n “People can now use the hemp that they grow and use that to make products and develop new technology to process or manufacture those products.”<\/p>\n New Zealand Hemp Industries Association chief executive, Richard Barge.<\/p>\n RNZ \/ Nate McKinnon<\/p>\n A seed farmer from Canterbury was making their European-bred and Aotearoa-acclimatised cultivar Kompolti available for small-scale use domestically, in addition to supplying larger commercial entities.<\/p>\n Barge said growers wanted to help pull the industry forward.<\/p>\n “[The project] is all exciting for the industry because that’s going to create conversations around where it can go and what it can be used for.”<\/p>\n Hemp globally was used across a [https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/business\/557872\/wood-hemp-sectors-want-to-join-wool-in-new-government-construction-rules wide range of industries, including food, fibre, clothing, as hempcrete in construction, health and wellness, horticulture and more.<\/p>\n However, Barge said some hemp products were commercially restricted in Aotearoa, including using it in animal feed<\/a> or in natural health products.<\/a><\/p>\n “There are still challenges with the value chain. We still face some hurdles that need to be overcome,” he said.<\/p>\n “The lack of a natural health [hemp] products is stopping the health and wellness industry really taking off.<\/p>\n “But the more people that are aware of them and pushing towards those markets, then the commercial reality will help support the argument for allowing us to get going.”<\/p>\n A 20 hectare paddock of hemp growing in North Canterbury<\/p>\n RNZ \/ Cosmo Kentish-Barnes<\/p>\n Richard Barge said the application process was quite a simple process that would also include the plot’s location.<\/p>\n “The Police will need to know where the crop is going to be grown so they can obviously identify it as a low-THC industrial hemp crop, not an illicit crop.<\/p>\n “And MPI want to be notified so they can let you know that you’re not allowed to feed it to animals.<\/p>\n “It’s a simple email, then getting the seed and putting it in the ground come October, November.”<\/p>\n Licenses had to be reapplied for each year, and officials may request a criminal record check too, the NZ Police website said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealanders might start seeing what looks like illegal cannabis growing more in people’s backyards or lifestyle blocks,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-581002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4JWKM93_Media_2_jfif.jpeg\")
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