Licensed hemp fields in Canada continued to shrink, with 11, 861 hectares ( 29, 309 acres ) recorded in 2023, down from 13, 589 hectares ( 33, 579 acres ) in 2022, according to government statistics.
The 2023 findings show industrial hemp at its lowest levels since Health Canada, the president’s cannabis regulation, started tracking the grain in 2018. Canadian fields are one- fourth of what they were at a peak of 44, 600 hectares ( 110, 209 acres ) achieved in 2017.
All three of the country’s top regions saw their numbers decline. In Alberta, the number of agriculture owners fell from 187 in 2022 to 130 in 2023 while flax hectarage dipped from 6, 532 to 5, 595, the number of Manitoba gardening owners was 58 in 2023, down from 67 the season prior while grounds dropped from 3, 130 hectares to 2, 270, Saskatchewan licensees were 75 in 2023 compared to 100 in 2022, and fields fell from 2, 859 to 2, 221 hectares.
Leading output
According to Health Canada’s annual report, the grain industry will still account for 51 % of hemp fields ‘ production by 2023. 30.1 % of the entire last year were grown for grain. Hectarage decreased by more than half in both segments in 2023 compared to the same period last year.
Canadian hemp grain producers remained a dominant force in the U.S. market for hemp-based products last year, shipping products valued at about$ 55 million south of the border, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ).
Canadian producers shipped in$ 46.8 million worth of food seed,$ 5.0 million in oilcake and$ 3.6 million in hempseed oil, with most of the supplies coming from Manitoba ($ 43 million ), according to final USDA import figures from last year.
In 2017, Canadian hemp fields reached a contemporary all-time high, helped by a boom in grain exports to South Korea valued at about$ 35 million in 2016, as South Korean consumers adopted the products, driven in part by aggressive telemarketing campaigns.
CHTA wants shifts
The leading industry group, the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance ( CHTA ), has criticised the country’s regulators for what it claims is a failure to recommend changes that would start treating hemp as a common agricultural crop and help stop the decline.
In a statement released in March, Health Canada, which regulates both weed and hemp, stated that participants had informed the company that the cannabis industry in Canada had been severely impacted by the legalization of marijuana in 2018.
According to CHTA, all produce- and processor-facing cannabis regulatory monitoring and procedures may be moved from Health Canada to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the nation’s gardening firm, and THC testing and related issues should be addressed. The Alliance added that there are still issues with regulatory misunderstandings between cannabis and child use/medical cannabis that have been brought up by Health Canada.
