Canada: hemp production set to double in 2019

In Canada, hemp growers expect to double their production in 2019. According to Statistics Canada, cultivation areas are set to increase from 41,200 acres in 2018, to 82,500 this year. Hemp is legal in Canada as it is in the United States, which legalized it at the end of 2018, a booming market in North America.

This news comes as a very difficult context for growers and farmers. In the province of Alberta, farmers' net income fell from 68%, to just $535 million in 2018, due to extreme weather conditions (severe drought) and trade barriers imposed by the country.

According to Ted Haney, Executive Director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA), the craze for hemp cultivation is due to a change in perspective regarding the plant. «Hemp has been grown in Canada for 20 years, but it's always been culturally considered a crop that's not part of the mainstream. There's always been this attitude of «this guy grows cannabis». Today, like chickpeas, lentils or quinoa, it's another of the most popular options. It's increasingly seen as a mainstream crop.» Indeed, the CHTA reported that most new licenses were granted to new growers.

However, this recent attraction to hemp cultivation worries Will Van Roessel, a farmer and seed producer in southeastern Alberta. «I think investors have unrealistic expectations,» he told Calgary Herald. «At the moment, there seems to be a lot of investment by novices in the CBD sector, which is a little worrying because some of them don't know much about what goes on a farm or how agricultural production practices work.».

Van Roessel also adds that some growers signed contracts with cannabis companies that hadn't even built CBD extraction and processing facilities yet, resulting in a considerable risk for hemp growers of being left with their production on their hands.