Oregon’s hemp growers are apparently retrenching in 2020 after the crop’s explosive expansion last year left many bitterly disappointed with their financial results.
Roughly 6,300 acres of hemp were registered for planting during the first quarter of 2020, down more than 75% from the 25,400 acres registered during the same period in 2019, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Though it’s still early in the season — last year, farmers ultimately registered to grow nearly 64,000 acres of hemp — experts say a problematic harvest, glutted market and regulatory morass is forcing growers to drastically scale back their ambitions.
Rick Bush, a hemp farmer and processor in Salem, Ore., said he personally uses the cannabidiol, or CBD, extracted from hemp for health reasons and considers it a “wonderful product.”
However, the “brutal” economic situation of plummeting CBD prices and insufficient demand has devastated growers who’d invested heavily in growing the crop last year, he said.
Read more at capitalpress.com
