Growing hemp can be a lucrative business, but the amount of money you make depends on the method used and the hemp product. Low-risk products like fiber and seeds may not bring in as much money, but they have a steady demand. With more and more people seeing the potential of hemp, many are wondering how much money the industry actually generates and if they should start growing hemp for profit. Hemp crops can be risky; a rainy season, delays in planting, and inadequate environmental factors such as soil and sunlight can lead to a poor harvest, especially if hemp plants fail to cover the canopy and prevent weed growth.
Contracts between CBD extractors and hemp producers are still scarce in the industry, but Hemp Foundry's 50-50 payment agreement for processing with producers who don't buy their clones, and a 60-40 profit sharing agreement that benefits those who do, have resulted in harvests that go directly to their money. Growing hemp specifically for the smokable hemp market is the most complicated but also the most cost-effective. The licensed interior space for hemp production has grown significantly this year, reaching more than 168 million square feet according to Hemp Benchmarks. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about why hemp is different from marijuana, which has created a stigma about whether or not it should be grown and used legally.
The growth in indoor spaces or greenhouses authorized for hemp production shows the shift from the CBD market to flowers, as farmers looking for that product tend to grow their plants indoors, said Ian Laird, chief financial officer and general counsel of Hemp Benchmarks.
