Hemp Industry Grew In 2024 Despite State And Federal Push For Bans On Consumable Products Like Delta-8 THC, USDA Report Finds

Even as more states and some congressional lawmakers pursued bans on consumable hemp products, the industry saw significant growth in 2024, according to a newly released survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The National Hemp Report, which USDA conducts annually to assess the economic health of the market, showed that hemp farmers cultivated 45,294 acres of the crop last year, up 64 percent from 2023. And the industry’s value jumped about 40 percent, increasing to $445 million.

As has been the case since hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, farmers primarily grew for flower, which represented 93 percent of production. While flower can be sold raw, it’s largely used for extraction purposes to manufacture consumable cannabinoid products such as CBD.

From 11,827 acres of floral hemp, farmers yielded 20.8 million pounds in 2024, a 159 percent increase from the 8 million that was produced in 2023.

In 2024, the value of #hemp production in the open and under protection for the US totaled $445 million, up 40% from 2023. See more #AgStats in the National Hemp Report ➡️https://t.co/xZyOr0tj5x

— National Agricultural Statistics Service (@usda_nass) April 17, 2025

That puts the market is a precarious position, with so much value concentrated in a sector of the hemp economy that’s increasingly under threat at the state and federal level as lawmakers seek to curb unregulated consumables—particularly intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that have grown in popularity.

Meanwhile, farmers produced 18,855 acres of hemp for fiber last year, a 56 percent increase. But yields from those plants fell by 21 percent, dropping to 3,205 pounds per acre. Coupled with declining prices, the value of hemp fiber hit $11.2 million, down 2 percent from 2023.

Hemp production for grain rose 22 percent to 4,863 acres, with farmers yielding 3.4 million pounds of grain in 2024. The value of hemp grain grew by 13 percent to $2.6 million.

Farmers who cultivated the cannabis crop for seed saw substantial growth last year, the USDA surveyshowed. With 2,160 acres of hemp for seed in 2024, that marked a 61 percent increase from the prior year. And the overall value of the hemp seed market jumped 482 percent to $16.9 million.

USDA launched its first annual survey in 2021, and it updated the questionnaire in 2022 before distributing it to farmers and releasing a report with findings that showed significant declines in the value and production of the crop in 2022. It followed up with another survey last year.

As the fate of the consumable hemp market remains murky amid legislative pushback, a congressional committee held a hearing on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month—with a hemp industry expert explaining how the market is “begging” for federal regulations around cannabis products.

Lawmakers have consistently raised concerns about FDA’s refusal to establish rules allowing for the marketing of federally legal hemp as a food item or dietary supplement.

One potential legislative solution that U.S. Hemp Roundtable’s Jonathan Miller noted to the committee is a bipartisan bill Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) filed last year that would create a federal regulatory framework for hemp-derived cannabinoids.

The legislation would empower states to set their own rules for products such as CBD while also empowering FDA to ensure that certain safety standards are met in the marketplace.

In the absence of FDA rules, states from California to Florida have pushed for sweeping changes to their own laws around consumable hemp products. While much of the focus has been on intoxicating products, federally legal CBD businesses have also found themselves increasingly in the crosshairs.

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Meanwhile, as lawmakers prepare to once again take up large-scale agriculture legislation this session, congressional researchers in January provided an overview of the policy landscape around hemp—emphasizing the divides around various cannabis-related proposals among legislators, stakeholders and advocates.

Senate Democrats released the long-awaited draft of 2024 Farm Bill last year that contained several proposed changes to federal hemp laws—including provisions to amend how the legal limit of THC is measured and reducing regulatory barriers for farmers who grow the crop for grain or fiber. But certain stakeholders had expressed concern that part of the intent of the legislation was to “eliminate a whole range of products” that are now sold in the market.

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Photo courtesy of Kimzy Nanney.

Hemp Market Saw Growth In 2023 After Major Declines In 2022, USDA Report Shows

The hemp market started to rebound in 2023 after suffering significant losses the prior year, the latest annual industry report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found.

USDA’s National Hemp Report for 2023—which is based on survey data from cannabis farmers who reported on the metrics such as acreage, yield, production, price and value of hemp—shows that industrial hemp value reached $291 million last year, which represents an 18 percent increase from 2022.

Last year’s report showed major industry losses in the value and cultivation of the non-intoxicating cannabis crop across every metric that it analyzed. Stakeholders placed much of the blame on inaction from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in regulating CBD.

While the industry’s overall value increased last year, the report shows a mix of economic trends within the market. For example, there were increases in hemp grown for flower grew in yield (up 134 pounds per acre on average) and value (up 35 percent).

By contrast, the average value of hemp grown for grain totaled $2.31 million in 2023, which is down 36 percent from the prior year.

Farmers grew 27,680 acres of industrial hemp in the open last year, which is two percent lower than 2022.

In 2023, the value of hemp production in the open and under protection for the United States totaled $291 million, up 18% from 2022. See more #AgStats in the National Hemp Report ➡️https://t.co/xeuwXqTpDB

— National Agricultural Statistics Service (@usda_nass) April 17, 2024

The data is the result of a survey that USDA mailed to thousands of hemp farmers across the U.S. in January.

The first version of the department’s hemp report was released in early 2022, setting a “benchmark” to compare to as the industry matures.

Bipartisan lawmakers and industry stakeholders have sharply criticized FDA for declining to enact regulations for hemp-derived CBD, which they say is largely responsible for the economic stagnation.

To that end, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee last week, where he faced questions about the agency’s position that it needed additional congressional authorization to regulate the non-intoxicating cannabinoid.

Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said at the hearing that FDA is “putting its own bureaucratic priorities over the American people” by refusing to regulate hemp products such as CBD.

Meanwhile, in 2020, USDA announced plans to distribute a separate national survey to gain insights from thousands of hemp businesses that could inform its approach to regulating the industry.

That survey launched in partnership with National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the University of Kentucky. The department said it wanted to learn about “current production costs, production practices, and marketing practices” for hemp.

Meanwhile, USDA is reportedly revoking hemp licenses for farmers who are simultaneously growing marijuana under state-approved programs, underscoring yet another policy conflict stemming from the ongoing federal prohibition of some forms of the cannabis plant.

Federal hemp rules could be further amended as part of the next iteration of large-scale agriculture legislation. The 2018 Farm Bill that legalized the crop was supposed to get updated last year, but it’s been extended through much of 2024.

Lawmakers and stakeholders are eyeing a number of proposals that could be incorporated, including measures to free up hemp businesses to legally market products like CBD as dietary supplements or in the food supply and to remove restrictions on participation in the industry by people with certain prior drug convictions.

For the time being, the hemp industry continues to face unique regulatory hurdles that stakeholders blame for the crop’s value plummeting in the short years since its legalization. Despite the economic conditions, however, a recent report found that the hemp market in 2022 was larger than all state marijuana markets, and it roughly equaled sales for craft beer nationally.

Meanwhile, internally at USDA, food safety workers are being encouraged to exercise caution and avoid cannabis products, including federally legal CBD, as the agency observes an “uptick” in positive THC tests amid “confusion” as more states enact legalization.

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