Hemp production has witnessed a glorious boom over the recent years, with more countries recognizing the plant's abundance of possible uses and farmers happily growing an easy to maintain crop with a hot market.

However, the industry faces heavy regulation in most countries and is subject to volatility as governmental oversight plays a major role. Despite these challenges, the hemp industry is taking off as hemp products have been recognized for a multitude of benefits from medical applications to manufacturing high quality products that cause minimal environmental strain. Here we take a look at the current state of the hemp industry and where we can expect to go in 2022 and beyond.

Main Hemp Producers Globally

While there is no official data from the country, China is believed to be the world's leading hemp producer, with the majority of its production in the form of fibers. In order to meet climate objectives in the Green Deal, Europe has taken great strides to increase hemp production over the last few years, with France leading in production by a fairly wide margin on the continent. In South America, Chile is the leading producer of the crop and a major exporter of hemp seed globally. Not surprisingly, both Canada and the USA are competitive hemp producing countries, with a market size value in the USA of a whopping $4.13B in 2021.

Current Rules in USA Around Hemp Growing

Since the 2018 Farm Bill which reclassified hemp, US farmers have been rushing to get licensed and start producing the highly versatile crop. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final rule for the production of hemp, which took effect in March 2021 and established fully USA regulation of hemp production. Currently, farmers must be licensed under a hemp production program at the state, tribe, or federal level in order to grow the crop. Licensed farmers are then subject to product testing before their crops are approved for sale. While consistency is starting to creep in with these recently established rules, there is still variability between state rules.

A Multi Versatile Crop

Industrial hemp is a multipurpose crop that is starting to be implemented in goods from clothing to fuel. The paper industry will transition to hemp as the fiber basis  for products, as it has shown itself clearly as a better alternative, being grown in a fraction of the time as traditional paper made from trees and also having a higher capacity to be repeatedly recycled for reuse. Microplastics have been making their way into our food and water sources for years, but here too hemp is showing its viability as an environmentally superior alternative to traditional plastic, with companies creating hemp based plastics that are sustainable and biodegradable. 

Hemp agriculture has a bright future in our world. As more countries recognize the benefits of hemp in meeting global environmental initiatives, the industry should continue expansion. The opening of the US market has already initiated a wave of hemp related research and development whose results depict a hopeful future in combating human strain on the planet. 2022 will be another exciting year as even more farmers and companies engage in hemp related production and development, and continue pushing the industry towards its full potential.