A Year in Review
A Year in Review
A lot can happen in a year. And for an industry in its infancy, the happenings can be fast and furious. As we navigate this evolving landscape, we maintain our vision of becoming world leaders in whole plant utilization for hemp superfoods, CBD and sustainable industrial products.
We are now entering our 3rd year of operations. A good time to reflect on the progress we’ve made, the milestones we’ve hit and the HUGE opportunities that lie ahead.
99% There! Passing the GFSI with An Exemplary Grade
Blue Sky Hemp Ventures (BSHV) underwent its first GFSI (Global Food Security Initiative) audit in September and achieved a score of 99% - a true testament to our quality focus. With this certification, we are now able to sell hemp food products produced from our facility to the most discriminating brands.
RFL (Refined Flower & Leaf) Expansion Complete
BSHV is extremely proud to announce the opening of a significant expansion to our RFL site. This major milestone will position BSHV as one of the largest hemp biomass processing facilities in Canada and will be instrumental in our ability to provide the lowest cost/highest quality CBD extracts. The new facilities will allow us to process ~30,000 acres during a calendar year and open the door to toll processing third party biomass when we have idle capacity.
CBD Harvest Completed with Strong Potencies
BSHV was very successful with this year’s harvest. We planted ~3,500 acres to harvest as flower for maximum CBD and we were pleased to announce that all acres were successfully harvested. Preliminary estimates show that our growers collected ~1 million kg of hemp flower with potencies in the 1.5 - 2.0% range, up from ~0.75% last year. This year we employed a new, more efficient, harvest approach that makes our biomass far easier and more cost-effective to process.
Protein Mill Nearly Complete
Our protein mill is now ~95% complete. The project is slightly behind schedule but is substantially under budget due to our decision to slow construction and utilize lower-cost internal staff to complete the bulk of construction work.
CBD Extraction Approximately 20% Complete
BSHV recently sanctioned construction of our CBD extraction facility in Saskatoon. The combination of our proprietary RFL facility and extraction will be the first end-to-end system designed to efficiently process low potency Canadian hemp into high-quality CBD extracts. By controlling the value chain from field to extracts, BSHV will make it easy for Licensed Producers (LP’s) to source the highest quality and lowest cost CBD extracts in the market. Construction is expected to be completed in late February 2020 with Health Canada licensing expected within a few months of completion.
Digital Marketing Platform Launched
With our focus on raising capital, building facilities, farming and innovation, the public face of Blue Sky wasn’t quite reflecting the personality, professionalism and quality of our business. We are now ready to proudly showcase our updated brand, new website, and marketing materials. Please have a look around!
What’s New for 2020?
BSHV’s vision has always been built around whole-plant utilization. In 2019 we completed our entry into hemp food processing, we successfully trialled and then expanded our RFL facility and began construction of our CBD extraction facility.
Our primary aims in 2020 are:
- To operationalize and continuously improve our existing businesses
- To expand CBD extraction and post-processing
- To make our first move into fibre processing
- To evaluate opportunities to replicate our whole plant utilization system in other locations around the world
Finding a way to successfully monetize the hemp stalk is near and dear to our hearts and is the last step to achieving our vision of whole plant utilization. We are currently in discussions with a number of opportunities to monetize the stalk and we look forward to announcing firm plans by mid-2020 that will allow us to profitably process hemp stalks while also sequestering large volumes of Co2. We look forward to building a better world, fuelled by hemp!
With gratitude,
Andrew
About Blue Sky Hemp Ventures
Blue Sky Hemp Ventures provides a range of sustainable, high-quality, and exceptional value wholesale hemp products throughout North America and around the globe. Established in 2017 in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, Blue Sky is GMP-certified and expects to achieve EU-GMP certification, the most rigorous standard for producers of medical products, by 2020.
Blue Sky Hemp Seed, Hemp Seed Oil, and Hemp Protein Powder are available now. CBD will be available in early 2020.