By Clint Thompson
The number of Georgia producers applying for a license to grow hemp is expected to decrease in 2022.
Tim Coolong, associate professor in the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said the level of interest among growers has dropped significantly from previous years.
“It’s marketing and the financial side of things. Basically, there’s so many growers who have not been able to sell their crop; growers that grew a crop last year that were not able to sell it. If you go on the wholesale market, the prices you would say, they’re not great but not that terrible,” Coolong said. “But the problem is the majority of our growers haven’t even been able to sell their product. If they could get what you see on the wholesale market, I think they would be okay with that. They just can’t even sell it.
“I think it speaks to a lack of processors in the state and a lack of processors nationwide. It just hasn’t been that good of an experience for the majority.”
Coolong said that growers last made a substantial profit in 2018. It started declining significantly in 2019.
“One thing farmers are fantastic at is growing stuff. The market was saturated,” Coolong said. “Then in 2020 acreage did decrease, but there was still so much more supply than to be accommodated.
“We had a fair number of (hemp) licenses issued (last year) to grow but what happened actually was that many of the growers had leftover material from 2020. They needed to get a license just to hold that material and store it. I think this year they’re not going to really be into that anymore. I do expect license numbers to decline.”
