AUSTIN: In order to facilitate hemp farmers, Santé Laboratories has entered into an alliance with Lone Star Overnight (LSO) to transport hemp crops, free, from anywhere in the state of Texas right to the laboratory’s doorstep in Austin.
This partnership provides a more affordable and reliable pathway for farmers throughout Texas who are muddling their way through the first year of cultivating hemp, filled with new challenges, due to the necessary regulations.
The alliance is transformative for the state’s hemp farmers, whose numbers are expected to grow from less than 1,000 to 12,000 over the next two years.
The current process for growing and testing a hemp crop requires a number of applications and fees. Examples of fees would be the application to sample and transport the material, a sampler fee, and high-quality testing fees. While these fees are necessary, farmers are feeling them close to home: in 2016, 62% of farms in Texas grossed less than $10,000.
The collaboration between LSO and Santé Laboratories brings light to the end of the tunnel, providing a break in shipping fees and ensuring that samples will arrive at the laboratory within the 15-day window to receive results for official Texas Department of Agriculture testing. Issues with other shipping agencies pose potential delays in laboratories, causing crops to be held in limbo for an unknown amount of time.
LSO will pick up samples from more than 900 zip codes; Santé Laboratories will also create drop-off boxes throughout the state. Mylar bags will be made available to farmers and samplers to protect the freshness and moisture content of samples and contain any odor.
The agreement with LSO is not exclusive to hemp farmers. LSO has also agreed to provide direct-to-lab transportation for the up to 7,500 Texas establishments that need testing documentation to sell CBD products retail in the state. Santé Laboratories is the only lab that has accredited services that meet the Texas requirements for hemp testing including heavy metals and THC levels.
“Santé Laboratories is always looking for ways to provide the ultimate customer experience. We know that providing high quality laboratory services is only brushing the surface of what Texas farmers need to be successful. This partnership will support Texas farmers and the Texas economy, keeping the business close to home,” Santé Laboratories President Mike Sandoval says of the agreement.
He adds, “We are excited to help LSO build a hemp transportation program from the ground up. Together we will act to establish best-practices standards that will help the industry as it continues to grow.”
“We look forward to working alongside Santé Laboratories. This alliance resonated with us because we want to help this industry and Texas as a whole, succeed. LSO is proud to support Texans and farmers every single day to ensure their packages get to the right places for affordable prices,” says LSO President and CEO Richard Metzler.
“Santé Labs has educated us on how the materials should be packaged and handled, as well as the pertinent legal and regulatory processes, to further ensure our service is of value to the farmers and Santé Lab.”
Comments Texas Industrial Hemp Council Co-Chair Eloise Frischkorn, “Santé Laboratories is bringing great science and great customer service to the hemp industry by supporting our local hemp cultivators. The future is bright when Texan companies come together to support a new industry that produces both CBD products and industrial items such as textiles and building materials. We look forward to collaborating with Santé and its partners to educate and elevate the industry, so that Texas becomes a successful model for others to follow.”
Santé Laboratories is a contract development manufacturing organization in Austin, Texas, that serves the hemp industry from seed to shelf.
“As the first laboratory to test an official hemp sample for the Texas Department of Agriculture and the first hemp laboratory in Texas to be ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accredited and offer the most inclusive scope of accreditation in the State of Texas, Santé Labs has rooted itself in Texas and looks forward to seeing the hemp industry grow,” says Sandoval.
He concludes, “The quality of data we are providing in conjunction with our LSO partnership could mean the difference between saving or losing an entire crop. With this agreement, we are enabling farmers to focus on operational complexities and minimizing the risk to their samples.”
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