This week on the hemp podcast we talk with Erica Stark, chair of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council, a nonprofit seeking to accelerate the return of hemp to Pennsylvania’s agriculture landscape.

Earlier this year, PAHIC received over $200,000 in grant money from the state ag department to attract capital investment with a program called Invest in PA Hemp.

Last month, the organization released a series of videos and educational materials “specifically geared towards investors to help them understand the space, help them understand what the opportunity is, and also explain all of the reasons why Pennsylvania is an ideal location for investment in this space,” Stark said.

With great farmers, excellent farmland, and proximity to major consumer markets, Pennsylvania is poised to be a leader in the U.S. hemp industry, she said.

“There’s a lot of reasons why Pennsylvania is ideal and we’re just trying to kind of bring that message home,” Stark said.

In the video for investors, Ag Secretary Russell Redding says we’re “at the very intersection of some of the most important issues of our time, and the future is around the bio-based materials we produce off this land.”

“And we see the hemp industry as critical to that success,” he said.

Redding said he wants investors to “see the promise that we see and the opportunities that we see to build an agricultural economy that is the solution to so many of the issues.”

Globally, industrial hemp is estimated to be a $5 billion industry in 2023 and is projected to grow to an $18 billion dollar industry by 2027, according to PAHIC.

The organization also released a kit for entrepreneurs to help navigate the fundraising phase of building their businesses.

“We’ve created a set of tools for business people to help them get investment-ready,” Stark said. “A set of financial tools, financial models, both for the decortication, grain processing, and construction.”

She said they also created a “pitch deck template” to help businesses make a document that gives potential investors an overview of the business model and investment opportunity.

“A lot of people have great ideas, but selling them is always the hard part,” Stark said.

Early next year, PAHIC will launch a secondary campaign that speaks directly to consumers about hemp products and where to find them.

Access the inventor tools at PAHIC.org

Watch PAHIC's inventor video: https://youtu.be/X9H0uz7PPxM?si=bQBRPXdEQqsKGpb8

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IND HEMP

https://indhemp.com/

King's Agriseedshttps://kingsagriseeds.com/

Cornell University's Master’s of Professional Studies in Integrative Plant Sciences with a concentration in hemp sciences.

https://cals.cornell.edu/school-integrative-plant-science