DENVER, Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- United Cannabis Corporation has announced that it has initiated extraction services at its majority-owned processing plant in McMinnville, Tenn.
The company established the 20-acre, 23,000-square-foot facility to provide contract manufacturing to farmers working in accord with the 2018 Federal Farm Bill and Tennessee's Department of Agriculture's (TDA) Hemp Program.
Located in central Tennessee, the McMinnville operation is currently processing industrial hemp for CBD-rich distillates, oils and isolates for further processing. Fibrous bi-products generated during processing will also be collected for sale to a wide range of industrial manufacturing customers. Longer term, the facility will also offer purification, testing and processing services, as well as packaging, fulfillment and secure storage capabilities.
Tennessee's hemp industry has grown rapidly since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill; the TDA licensed more than 2,600 hemp growers in 2019, a ten-fold increase from 2018 when they approved 226 applicants.
Clifton Lambreth, the company's chief marketing officer, commented on the announcement, "This is an important addition to the United Cannabis production network as we gear up to hit 50,000 pounds of daily hemp processing in the first quarter. Tennessee is not only one of the fastest growing hemp farming markets in the country, it's also my home state, so I'm very familiar with the needs of the stakeholders in the region. Their response to our launch has been very enthusiastic and I look forward to working together to establish Tennessee and Untied Cannabis as leaders in the hemp sector.
Earnest Blackmon, chief executive officer of United Cannabis, added, "The booming consumer demand for CBD products is driving demand for high-quality hemp extractions, like those produced by United Cannabis. We're meeting that demand by expanding our capacity in high-yield hemp farming states like Tennessee where our services provide farmers with a competitive advantage in the raw material supply chain. Similar launches are on the way in South Carolina, Illinois and New York."
