WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — Panda Biotech is the largest hemp company in North America and uses hemp to generate cloth and other usable items.

Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Ron Kitchens is ecstatic about the company making Wichita County its home and all the opportunities the company will provide.

“This will be the largest in North America,” said Kitchens. “We will become the center of the nation for processed hemp and help cloth. So we think it’ll create a lot of downstream opportunities.”

Kitchens goes on to note the company can create additional companies producing hemp clothes, products, filtration, and animal feed. Also, Panda Biotech aims to improve the agriculture industry around their factory by offering farmers rewards to grow hemp on their farms.

“They’ve created a new incentive for farmers,” said Kitchens. “So zero risk for farmers to plant the hemp and so I can’t imagine that we don’t have some entrepreneurial farmers that are going to become hemp growers as well.”

Hemp also does not need a lot of water to grow and flourish, making Texoma a perfect environment to house the crops.

“We need a variety that grows with very little water, and it uses, I think, about 20% the amount of water that cotton requires,” said Kitchens. “So all of a sudden farmers can still produce a crop on dry drought years, and we know that’s something we have to be very conscious about. So we are feeling great about it.”

Currently the company imports hemp from Native American tribes in Colorado, but would love to have local farmers provide the supply.