Hemp Farmers Won't Use King's Royal for Processing

A hemp processing plant that broke ground this spring won't be coming to Carlisle County, after all.

Carlisle County Judge-Executive Greg Terry said farmers in Carlisle and Hickman Counties agreed to work with King's Royal Biotech and planted a combined 2,300 acres of hemp, anticipating that when it was time to harvest, King's Royal would be ready to process the crop to extract Cannabidiol CBD isolate for pharmaceutical use. 

But, when May arrived, the farmers realized that King's Royal wasn't going to be ready. The company said they were having trouble getting investors to help fund their construction, but the anticipated harvest required action. Terry says the farmers chose to use someone else to process the hemp.

"They're upset, but you know, we don't know what to do, and there's other opportunities out there, and we just chose to move a different direction, because we seen that they couldn't get nobody to follow them" Terry said.

He said there are plenty of other companies that would like to process the hemp.

Terry said, "What we have found out is that nobody in the United States is growing as much as we are here in these two small counties. It grows here, and we were bold enough to plant 2,300 acres. We've ended up with about 1,700, we had to destroy some of it - it just didn't come up and the weeds took it - but we've got a really good crop between the two counties that everybody in the United States is looking at. We're getting calls from Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, those places that we thought were the hemp capitals. Well, heck, they can't even grow it there to suit them!"

He said one added benefit is that their plots are planted so they can be harvested with a combine. Although the amount of CBD in the plant is not as high as some other strains of hemp or hybrids, those types are planted in small plots and harvested by hand. Processors can use the large harvest from Carlisle and Hickman Counties to get the same quantity of oil.

Terry said after the loss of over 100 potential jobs with King's Royal, he believes their relationship with the company is over.

"You know, they built false hopes for Carlisle County, and the job creation is what we were after - myself and the county people - that's what we were looking at is those jobs. Good paying jobs, too," Terry said. 

He said he's heard from "plenty of other people" who are ready to step in and bring a hemp processing plant to western Kentucky. Terry said these companies are realizing the soil in counties bordering the river are perfect for growing hemp.

The farmers that are growing hemp this year had previously been growing corn, soybeans and wheat.