Retired major leaguer Shane Victorino is going into the hemp business
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boston Red Sox’s Shane Victorino during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, in July 2015, in Anaheim, Calif. The Hawaii resident and former major league baseball player is getting into the hemp business.
Hawaii resident and former major league baseball player Shane Victorino is getting into the hemp business.
Victorino’s company Legacy Ventures Hawaii is joining with California-based Arcadia Biosciences to grow, extract and sell hemp products in the islands under the name Archipelago Ventures. The company plans to begin sales in late 2019.
Hawaii’s climate and geography makes it a good place for growing and harvesting hemp year-round, which gives the group a “long-term competitive advantage that many mainland cultivators and producers will not attain,” according to a news release by Arcadia Biosciences.
“Hawaii’s geographic advantage also provides access to important CBD and hemp markets in Asia,” the company said.
The 2018 U.S. Agriculture Improvement Act – also known as the Farm Bill – legalized the regulated production of hemp, the part of cannabis containing less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
The hemp CBD market has grown dramatically in recent years, totaling $190 million in 2018, according to estimates by the Hemp Business Journal. By 2022, sales are expected to skyrocket to $22 billion based on projections by the Brightfield Group, a cannabis and CBD market research firm.
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