Paragon Processing out of Colorado is opening a facility to process hemp on an industrial scale. They are taking on 250 workers for the plant near Colorado city, 140 miles South of Denver. The target this year is to process 2 million pounds of hemp biomass from this year’s harvest.
“We’re pleased to offer an array of turnkey services, including extraction, distillation, isolation, THC-free processing, sales, storage, and third-party laboratory testing,” says Paragon Processing Co-President Matt Evans. “It is important to our mission to provide a one-stop-shop partnership for clients, whether they are farmers seeking assistance, new companies testing an idea or an established business seeking to strengthen its production practices and/or product lines.”
The plant is built on a 38-acre property. At 250,000 sq ft, it is the largest facility operating in the U.S. It can store up to 50 million pounds of hemp, and has 13 dock loading positions. At full capacity, the plant can go through 1 million pounds of biomass per month, with the goal of expanding that to 2 million. They do cryo-ethanol extraction and three-stage molecular distillation. They have the abilities to extract 300 liters of crude extractions per hour and process it into full spectrum distillate oil.
In Colorado Springs, their partner facility creates and packages products. The 45,000 sq ft plant can turn out over 1 million gummies, ten thousand tinctures and many other wellness products like sunscreen and lip balm.
Paragon Processing wants to assist farmers in developing best practices. They record all genetic data and provide traceability for all batches of their biomass. They want to help businesses by giving the services and support they need. They house an accredited laboratory on-site and can have give their customers a complete Certificate of Analysis when asked.
