The Northern Territory Government has introduced legislation which would allow opium poppies to be grown commercially in the Top End.

Tasmanian company TPI Enterprises successfully trialled poppies in the Territory last year and has plans for a larger commercial trial on the Tipperary cattle station south of Darwin.

The NT Minister for Primary Industry, Willem Westra van Holthe, says the Poppy Regulation Bill introduced in parliament today will pave the way for such a trial.

"There was not a legal mechanism to allow for the commercialised growing of poppies in the Northern Territory, which is why the new legislation has been brought before the house," he said.

"The government has actively worked to design an appropriate regulatory framework to allow for the legalised growing, processing, storage and transportation of poppy and related products.

"This legislation will enable the commercialisation of poppies in a trial (by TPI), probably around 250 hectares.

"If it's successful, we could see a new poppy industry for the Territory."

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TPI Enterprises is one of three poppy companies operating in Tasmania, the traditional home of Australia's poppy industry.

When speaking to ABC Rural last year, TPI's managing director Jarrod Ritchie said all three companies were looking to the mainland to expand the industry.

"(The move to the Northern Territory) has come about because of two factors," he said.

"There's increasing global demand for pain management and anti-addiction drugs, and those products come out of the opium poppy.

"So there's enormous demand, and that's been coupled with the limitation of Tasmania to supply a reliable amount of poppy straw."

Willem Westra van Holthe says he's expecting the new legislation to be passed in time for TPI's Northern Territory planting window.

"This is not about a taking an industry away from Tasmania. It's about the company's plans to expand," he said.

"We are putting the legislation up to the parliament on urgency, and asking that it be passed in this parliamentary sitting.