With 2024 behind us and new state legislative sessions ahead, it is a perfect time to discuss one of the most frequently asked questions received by the Vicente Economics and Research Department: How large is the intoxicating hemp market? That is a complicated question to answer with incomplete pieces of information. Thankfully, new states are now reporting comprehensive data that provides key insights into how hemp cannabinoid markets are growing.
Regulated medical and adult-use marijuana markets are easy to analyze, as states typically report monthly sales data and tax revenue. On the other hand, publicly available hemp reports tend to be static and typically based on surveys conducted by industry analysts and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These reports provide helpful information on floral hemp production, wholesale sales, and projections for the retail value of finished products, but surveys fail to capture the market comprehensively and do not show month-over-month growth.
The USDA estimates the wholesale value of floral hemp grown for extraction was $172.6 million in 2023, up from $109.9 million in 2022 but down from $298.1 million in 2021. While helpful, this national wholesale sales data is reported annually, and the information has a long lag time considering the 2024 data is expected in April 2025. National harvest data does not tell us about the growth of state-regulated markets for finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products. Hemp extracts and cannabinoid distillates can be stored for a long time. So, it is possible that the hemp-derived products you purchased today were produced from hemp harvested years ago.
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