CBD producer sues Oregon hemp seed seller for $44M

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Kentucky-based company that produces CBD has filed a $44 million lawsuit against an Oregon company it claims sold it nearly worthless hemp seeds that ruined a giant 2019 crop.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the crop was destined to help fulfill the country’s booming demand for CBD, a plant extract soaring in popularity as a treatment for health problems from anxiety to insomnia.

But Elemental Processing of Lexington, Kentucky, claims those plans tanked when HP Farms of Troutdale, Oregon sold it more than 6 million seeds that were mostly “male.” The female plants produce a CBD-rich flower.

The suit says it was only after the Kentucky company had distributed the seeds to farmers and those farmers’ crops had sprouted that the company learned the seeds were male.

Elemental Processing estimates it lost at least $44 million in profits.

HP Farms couldn’t be reached for comment and a lawyer listed for them didn’t return a message left by the newspaper.

AP Only 2019