Organic Growth Holdings (OGH) Jamaica is the latest company to make its foray in Jamaica’s growing medical hemp industry, breaking ground on Wednesday for its farm and factory on the Long Pond Estate just outside of Clark’s Town in Trelawny.

It is a subsidiary of OGH Incorporated, a US C corporation registered in Florida. OGH Jamaica was formed to develop, manage, own and operate scalable agribusinesses in Jamaica. OGH’s management team has committed to cultivate nothing short of the highest quality hemp biomass for the processing of cannabidiol, or CBD oils.

The local subsidiary will execute OGH Inc’s initial agribusiness on 635 acres of leased government farmland (formerly part of the Long Pond Sugar Cane Estate) in Trelawny. The projects will be founded firmly on the premise of sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices.

PRINCIPALS MAINLY FOREIGNERS

OGH Jamaica principals are mainly foreigners, namely co-founder and OGH President Robert Weinstein; Mitchel Yeckes, OGH, managing director, and Charles Hardesty, a director of the company. Interestingly they also share the same title in the holding company OGH Inc.

In addition to these three principals, it is understood that a number of overseas investors, some connected to the directors, have also invested sums of money on the project.

Speaking in an interview with the Caribbean Business Report at the ground-breaking ceremony Weinstein admitted that another connected company that is involved with the project. He explained that the initial feminine hemp seeds for planting have been sourced from this company, which operates out of the US and is associated with one of his partners.

The company in question he said has an operation in Oregon, USA, growing feminine hemp seeds. Referring to the hemp seeds for Jamaica, Weinstein added, ”So the feminine seeds hemp have already been grown—six generations of them.”

Weinstein told the Caribbean Business Report that the seeds have already been shipped to Jamaica and have been certified by the Plant Quarantine Division with the Cannabis Licensing Authority already giving the go-ahead for the seeds to be grown initially in the greenhouse and then grown in the fields to extract the CDB oils.

CBD oil is a derivative of hemp and is being increasingly used for its medicinal benefits. It is effective at treating a range of ailments due to its interaction with the human endocannabinoid system.

Based on its medicinal value CBD can potentially address conditions from sleep disorders to chronic pain to symptoms of discomfort from cancer treatment.