Marijuana Business Magazine July 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | July 2019 112 Like marijuana, hemp flower and biomass will lose potency over time with exposure to high temperature fluctuation and elevated ultraviolet light, causing the degradation of cannabinoids. That’s why bales of biomass are wrapped in white plastic—to keep the sunlight out. “If you have UV exposure, the CBD will degrade,” Leaker said. Cannabinoid content will typically degrade by 1%-2% over a year when hemp is stored, Leaker said, so it’s important for processors to test for that when receiving a shipment to ensure they’re receiving what is being claimed. He noted cannabinoid content can also vary within a field-grown hemp crop. HOW LONG IS TOO LONG? Using freshly dried hemp rather than stored is ideal to optimize the canna- binoid potency of the crop, but if done correctly, hemp flower and biomass can typically be stored for up to a year, Propheter said. “Generally, when you take an agricul- tural product and dry it down to a certain percentage of moisture, it will stay as long as you’re keeping it in a climate-controlled environment,” Propheter said. “But if you’re able to dry that product down to 10% or less moisture, it’s going to stay a whole heck of a lot longer.” When evaluating a hemp crop that has been in storage, there are certain characteristics to look for to determine whether it has held up well. “Look for things like if the color has gone off—like if it’s a dark brown as opposed to green, which should still have chlorophyll in it. We prefer green,” Leaker said. “You don’t want to see mold or anything like that in it. It should be nice and clean and green and dry, with a good smell or bouquet. When it smells good, it’s got a really good terpene profile and then you know you’ve got something that’s reasonably fresh. The terpenes are a good indicator of other cannabinoids that are in the mix.” Sourcing hemp from different growing regions throughout the year will allow processors to avoid having to keep large stores of hemp biomass, Leaker said. “Take advantage of geographical diversity across the United States,” Leaker said. “Rather than growing it all in one northern state, where you get one crop a year and you have to grow enough per year, you can get up to three crops in the continental United States. That makes more sense from a cash-flow perspective and keeps the biomass fresh, so you don’t need acres upon acres of storage.” Even when hemp is stored correctly, cannabinoid degradation is a danger. Propheter said he knows of companies that have strict storage protocols that have experienced cannabinoid degrada- tion of 2%-3% in floral material when carrying it over for an entire season. Ideally, vacuum-sealing product for long-term storage would keep it fresh, but it may not be practical or affordable to do when scaling a business, Propheter said. That’s why stocking hemp in a climate- controlled environment is important. “The packaging really isn’t as im- portant as the environment in which it’s stored,” Propheter said. “The most important part is generally making sure that you can control the temperature and humidity, wherever it’s being stored.” A Call for Research As the hemp industry develops, farmers and businesses agree that everyone would benefit from university or public research priorities that include novel hemp- storage concepts. “We realistically need a good stability study—both on the raw material in three or four different types of storage conditions, and on the extract itself,” said Scott Propheter, vice president of agronomy and outreach at Criticality, a North Carolina-based, vertically integrated hemp and CBD company. “That would go a long way in telling us just how long we can store under specific conditions.” Developing industrywide quality standards would help push forward better harvesting and storage practices, as well, according to Trey Riddle, CEO of Kentucky hemp fiber company Sunstrand. “Eventually, there needs to be an industrywide quality standard that everybody agrees to,” Riddle said. “It could be a third-party certification or just general trade organization specifications. We need specifications so everybody can communicate around the same set of topics.” – Laura Drotleff Laura Drotleff writes about hemp for Hemp Industry Daily and Marijuana Business Magazine. You can reach her at laurad@ hempindustrydaily.com. In states such as Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee, hemp is often dried and stored in environmentally controlled barns that already exist on tobacco farms. Photo by Charlie McKenzie/CropTalk