Hemp Drying In Watsonville: Treasure8 Launches Subsidiary

WATSONVILLE, CA — A San Francisco-based company has launched a Watsonville subsidiary that aims to become the "premier hemp dryer and post-CBD extraction waste stream processor in North America."

Treasure8, which offers food dehydration technologies, announced Tuesday it has officially launched its HEMP8 subsidiary, which has begun operations at its drying facility in Watsonville.

HEMP8 is targeting larger hemp growers and processors. The company claims it can dry hemp within 60 minutes and capture 2 percent more CBD than regular ambient air drying alone.

While many parts of the country have seen an influx of hemp crops the last few years as CBD has grown in popularity, drying capacity remains a huge issue, the company said.

"Many growers have been forced to leave millions of pounds (and billions of revenue) of the newly legalized plant to rot in the field — not only an economic and food loss, but a drain to the environment, too," according to the company.

“The novel dehydration solutions we’ve commercialized for the food and waste stream dehydration business shows its value by efficiently helping to solve one of the largest challenges to the hemp industry, with fast, but also quality drying,” said Timothy Childs, founder and co-CEO of HEMP8 & Treasure8.

HEMP8 also plans to convert waste left over from hemp CBD processing to create "healthy and sustainable food ingredients (protein and fiber), as well as biofuel, to eventually power its low energy, clean-burning dehydration machines, and biochar to enrich the soil in which hemp is grown," according to the company.

Tuaropaki Trust is Treasure8’s main investor.