Nikki Fried has high hopes for hemp industry in Florida

Hemp could be growing out of the ground in Florida by the end of the year, predicts Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who has made it her goal to provide an alternative cash crop for the struggling citrus industry.

Speaking to a group of reporters at the third and final rules workshop to establish a state hemp program in Tallahassee, Fried said she anticipates plants in the ground by the end of the year, backing up comments made by her cannabis director, Holly Bell.

“The responses I am hearing and the excitement across state has been so overwhelming, I know it is going to be a great success,” Fried said. She predicted hemp could be a $10-20 billion industry, even bigger than medical marijuana, which is already doing more than $1 billion in sales in Florida.

There is a huge market for CBD consumption, and limitless possibilities for industrial opportunities and replacements for plastics, paper, Styrofoam and concrete.

“We’re going to have 100,000-200,000 acres based on what we’re seeing here, the excitement I’m seeing across the state, people saying how many acres they are ready to rock and roll on,” Fried said.

Hemp also is a highly invasive species on the order of kudzu and poses a threat to native species if it is not intensely regulated, agricultural officials told the audience attending the all-day workshop at the R.A. Gray Building.

Some 400-plus people have shown up at each of the workshops over the last several days, reflecting a great deal of diversity — farmers, entrepreneurs, investors, people from out of state who want to partner with Floridians.

About 300 attended today. They were handed out copies of the newly drafted rules and given a chance to comment.

The bill, SB 1020, sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park, is still awaiting the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign it by Friday (its effective date is July 1). If it becomes law, Florida will create an entirely new agricultural program from the ground up, administered by the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services.

The department will be responsible for regulating the industry, licensing growers, selecting which seeds to use and making sure growers use them, setting rules for the production and distribution of CBD oil, labeling, testing and all other aspects of the industry.

It will be illegal for anyone to grow hemp without a license.

Rule making was set to begin Aug. 1, with rule adoption within 90 days of the bill’s effective date. But Fried wanted to get a jump on that process so the state could start importing seedlings and getting them in the ground.

“We are work shopping to hear what other folks have to say,” Fried said.

Her staff will take all the recommendations and critiques, redraft the rules and publish them. That will open a comment period, after which time she will submit the rules to the USDA for a 30-day review. 

“As soon as we get the green light from the USDA, we will be ready to go as long as we have no challenges or other problems,” she said.

People attending the workshops have asked about seed tracking, cross-pollination, warehousing in industrial areas, home-gardening, and preparing for hurricanes. “There has been a lot of conversation and open dialogue,” Fried said.  “The concerns brought up in the last couple of days we’ll be able to fix.”

Fried encouraged people from all over the state who have an interest in jumping into the industry call or write with questions and concerns. If they don’t get involved and identify problems during this process, she said, “then it was all for nothing.”

She spoke with the governor’s chief of staff to see if there were any major concerns, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Their priority was the state’s $91 billion budget, which DeSantis signed Friday, after cutting $131 million in member projects, including several agriculture items.

One big hurdle will be to get plants in from out of state.

“We have to do a balancing act with plants. Plants we’d already seen for the pilot program had bugs and pests on it,” Fried said. “That would have been disastrous for the industry.”

Regulation is going to be an issue, too. With an understaffed team of agricultural inspectors, the state will have to train local law enforcement and rely on them to spot products that don’t comply with state labeling and other regulations.

“I think I have made it very clear along the way I have a concern about what’s in the marketplace right now for the consumer. We have no idea,” Fried said. “There is going to be a window of time when everybody in the state of Florida will have to be compliant and bring in products that have the right labeling, the right testing standards.”

When local law enforcement or state agricultural inspectors do find non-compliant items, she said, the stores will be asked to take those products off the shelves. 

“My first priority is the consumer. If there are safe products we will promote them,” she said. “And those that are not tested, and not labeled correctly, those are going to come off the shelves.”

Contact Schweers at jschweers@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.