In order to fulfill on its promises to provide up to 20 small organic hemp farmers with $100K incomes from 2020’s harvest, Fat Pig Society is taking on the responsibility of attempting to increase its capacity to process that volume of material using their existing system. 2020’s proposed increase represents 10-20x increase over FPS’ 2019 volumes.
FPS’ Operations (Scaling)
FPS is working on techniques to increase their on-site extraction output by 300-400% ( and is still hoping to double that again this year), using ethanol recapture methods and other proprietary innovations. For more information, speak to Bill Althouse.
Commercial Extraction Facilities (Market)
Current state of the extraction market: In the U.S., recently, extractors have slammed the door on farmers trying to contract processing to get some value added. Extractors who had offered tolling arrangements stopped offering that and switched to a flat price because “there’s so much material on the market.” Now extractors are saying “We’ll give you $5 per pound. Take it or leave it.” Bill is estimating that three-quarters of the current U.S. hemp harvest will not sell. There’s a bottleneck right now, and any farmer who thought they might get value-added prices for their product by making their own, is shut out.
Access to all the value added is dependent on the cooperative owning and operating extraction
Farmers this year should understand and appreciate the risks related to Fat Pig Society’s capacity to scale extraction operations.