As hemp acreage booms, pricing confusion bedevils new hemp producers

Farmers are so bullish on hemp that growers from Wisconsin to Florida are making big investments even before federal agricultural regulators write the rules for how the plant can be grown and sold.

The hemp boom conceals a nagging problem for hemp farmers and manufacturers alike – there is precious little information about how to price the crop.

“No one knows what prices should be,” said Kaelan Castetter, CEO of CSG Hemp, which grows and sells hemp in southern New York. “Farmers are just taking what they can get at this point.”

The market uncertainty comes as states license ever-increasing acreage for hemp.

• Colorado currently has about 80,000 outdoor acres licensed to grow hemp, up 562% from 2017, when the state licensed 12,042 acres
• Oregon currently has more than 51,000 outdoor acres licensed for hemp production, an eye-popping increase of more than 1,300% from 2017, when the state had about 3,500 acres

The boom is coming mostly from word-of-mouth reports about hemp’s profitability, rumors underpinned with little data.

“Farmers are looking for financing to expand production, and they don’t even know what to say they’re going to get for the crop,” Castetter said.

Hemp Industry Daily surveyed dozens of farmers for on-the-ground intelligence about wholesale prices in their states. Their responses are included in a free report, “Cultivation Snapshot: U.S. Hemp Prices and Supply,” which gives producers and manufacturers insights into how much hemp is coming from the nation’s top 10 producing states.

Click here to download the report.