50,000 years in the past, people discovered a approach to create material utilizing Hemp, and ever since then, it has turn into one of the extensively used vegetation for industrial functions, all throughout the globe.
Proper from textiles to prescribed drugs, biofuels to bioplastics, the utilization and software of hemp as a sustainable crop is gaining momentum at an incredible scale.
As nations are recognizing and appreciating the utilization of commercial hemp, a number of of them have emerged as leaders in hemp cultivation and manufacturing.
Based mostly on our analysis into the hemp trade, we’ve recognized 5 high nations, that are hailed as leaders in industrial hemp cultivation and manufacturing.
These 5 nations are: China, India, USA, Canada & Netherlands.
On this weblog, we are going to delve deep into every nation, and discover out extra about their hemp innovation, cultivation practices, and market growth initiatives.
China: The Hemp Big
Historic Context
By a number of accounts, it has been established that China was among the many first nations to establish hemp’s distinctive properties, after which deploy them for creating merchandise and experiences.
The truth is, historians investigating the Neolithic Age of fifth BC discovered hemp fiber imprints on Yangshao tradition pottery, thereby establishing its utilization and adoption.
Later, with analysis and apply, the Chinese language began making garments, footwear, ropes, and an early type of paper utilizing hemp vegetation.
One other very attention-grabbing reality: Má, which is the Chinese language time period for hashish, finds its first reference as a time period for medical marijuana in 2700 BCE. By 10,000 BC, the Historical Chinese language had discovered the medical utilization of hemp, and likewise used it for ritual functions inside Taoism.
Across the identical time, they began sending this plant to India and Central Asia, thereby increasing its utilization and recognition.
Market Worth
As per IndustryARC, the general hemp trade in China is valued at round $19.7 billion, which exhibited an enormous CAGR of 28% from 2020 to 2025.
Manufacturing Statistics
It’s estimated that in China, hemp is cultivated throughout 50,000 to 70,000 hectares of land, which makes it the world’s largest hemp producer.
Only for comparability: New Delhi, India’s largest metropolis is round 1.5 lakh hectares!
Manufacturing Quantity: As of 2025, China produces an estimated 70% of the world’s hemp, with fiber and seed manufacturing being their foremost modus operandi. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes of hemp are cultivated in China yearly.
Key Areas: Yunnan, Heilongjiang, and Inside Mongolia are thought-about as the important thing areas of hemp manufacturing in China.
Major Strengths
Fiber Manufacturing: As per stories, China is producing 70% of hemp-based material, and this can be a 10-15% of the general utilization of the hemp produced there. The remainder of the hemp is especially used for gas and paper.
Seed Manufacturing: China is among the many key nations supplying hemp seeds for manufacturing meals gadgets, and cosmetics.
Regulatory Protocols
Between 1980 and 1990, China banned the cultivation of hemp, primarily to clamp down on the abuse of high-THC hashish (marijuana). In 2018, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched the “Hemp Planting Seeds Commonplace, which regulates the manufacturing and sale of hemp, for enhancing high quality and stopping abuse.
France: European Chief In Hemp
Historic Context
France is the world’s 2nd largest producer of hemp, and has a tremendous historical past associated to hemp and its utilization.
The Japanese Iranian equestrian nomadic neighborhood known as Scythians launched hemp in France round 100 BCE, which that they had obtained from Central Asia and China.
This was the Bronze Age, and inside a couple of years, farmers in France had began utilizing hemp for creating canvas for sails and sacks, rope, and as a textile.
Historians even have discovered sturdy proof of France utilizing hemp for textiles throughout the Neolithic Age, when this crop was primarily used for making textiles.
Even William Shakespeare talked about the wonderful high quality of hemp-based material, sourced from a metropolis in France known as Locronan, within the tragic play Coriolanus.
In between, the manufacturing and utilization of hemp declined, and virtually grew to become extinct, earlier than its revival within the Sixties. At this time, France is the world’s 2nd largest producer of hemp, having roughly 25% market share, and Europe’s largest producer.
Market Worth
As per trade stories, the hemp trade in France is projected to cross EUR 6.1 billion by 2030, surging from EUR 695 million in 2024. France is answerable for producing roughly 50% of the hemp produced.
Manufacturing Statistics
Manufacturing Quantity: 20,000+ hectares of land in France are getting used for hemp manufacturing, with roughly 1.08 lakh tonnes of annual capability, which is greater than 60% of Europe’s whole capability.
Key Areas: Champagne-Ardenne, Burgundy, and Picardy are thought-about to be the first areas for hemp manufacturing in France.
Major Strengths
France is understood for producing ultra-high high quality hemp vegetation, that are used for making sturdy and costly hemp material. Out of 20,000 hectares of hemp manufacturing, round 3000 hectares are devoted solely to material manufacturing.
Regulatory Protocols
In France, hemp is just allowed to be produced, which is a certified number of Hashish sativa L., and has a THC content material of lower than 0.3%, which aligns with the European legal guidelines for hemp manufacturing and gross sales.
India: Historical Hemp Producer & Shopper
Historic Context
Together with China, India is among the many oldest civilizations to have used hashish and hemp in numerous kinds and usages. The truth is, the primary situations of the time period Bhanga may be present in early scriptures relationship again to 1000 BCE, which has similarities to the Chinese language utilization of hemp.
Vedas, that are estimated to be 1500 and 500 BCE previous, have a number of mentions of Hashish sativa, whose spinoff vegetation have been used to create Soma, the intoxicating drink. Atharvaveda (c. 1500–1000 BCE) mentions bhanga (which historians consult with as hashish), as a drugs to alleviate anxiousness and stress.
Later, in Sushruta Samhita (c. 600 BCE), this identical bhanga was used as a drugs to deal with catarrh, phlegm, and diarrhea. As per the UN, round 3.2% of the Indian inhabitants consumes hashish in some type, though leisure utilization is banned.
After the entire ban on the cultivation and sale of hemp in 1985 below the Narcotic Medication and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Uttarakhand allowed the cultivation of hemp in 2018, just for industrial utilization.
The standing of hemp manufacturing is difficult in India, with completely different guidelines in numerous states, based mostly on industrial utilization and software. A
Though hemp, as a plant, has been in use for 1000’s of years, industrial-level manufacturing continues to be low, however current Govt rules are altering the situation.
Market Worth
As per trade stories, the market measurement of hemp manufacturing for industrial utilization was 97 million in 2022, which is projected to achieve $450 million by 2030. With ease of Govt rules, extra consciousness, and demand for hemp-related merchandise, Indian is witnessing a surprising 34% CAGR for hemp.
Manufacturing Statistics: In Indian hemp is primarily used for textiles, bioplastics, development supplies, and well being merchandise, with rising demand within the development sector.
Manufacturing Quantity: Nearly 57% of the hemp produced in India is used for creating material, whereas the remainder of the manufacturing is used primarily for manufacturing medicines. Nearly 70% of commercial hemp is being produced in Uttrakhand, adopted by Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. After Himanchal Pradesh legalized industrial hemp in 2025, manufacturing has ramped up.
Major Strengths: Because of the utilization of hemp seed and hemp seed oil in making medicines for pores and skin circumstances, irritation, and coronary heart well being, its utilization and manufacturing each have elevated manifold in India. Hemcrete, biofuels, hemp-based meals, and hemp-based beauty merchandise are different industrial purposes.
Regulatory Protocols
Cultivation, sale, and utilization of hemp are managed by the Narcotic Medication and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, which was allegedly launched below US strain. However paradoxically, the US has now allowed the cultivation and sale of hemp, each for leisure and industrial utilization.
Legally, solely these hemp vegetation which have 0.3% THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) or much less is allowed to be cultivated, and it’s solely allowed in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh as of now.
However, guidelines are anticipated to be modified quickly, with extra give attention to cultivating high-quality hemp for industrial utilization.
Canada: Rising Powerhouse of Industrial Hemp
Historic Context
After hashish reached Canada within the seventeenth century, primarily by sailors who used hemp-based sturdy and sturdy ropes, the utilization and cultivation of hemp was banned in 1938, because of the damaging stigma of marijuana.
In 1998, the State of Ottawa determined to differentiate marijuana from hemp, and thus started the journey of hemp cultivation and utilization on an enormous scale throughout Canada.
Well being Canada, the Authorities Dept below the Canadian Govt, regulates and displays the cultivation, manufacturing, utilization, and sale of hemp within the nation. Because the early Nineteen Nineties, the Hemp Consciousness Committee on the College of Manitoba has been fairly lively in advocating the recognition of hemp amongst farmers and agriculturalists.
On account of their efforts, the Canadian Govt allowed industrial manufacturing of hemp with solely minute quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol, in 1998.
Market Worth
After the leisure utilization of hashish was allowed in 2018, the manufacturing of each marijuana and industrial hemp has exponentially elevated in Canada. The general market worth of the hemp trade was CAD 587 million in 2024, which is able to cross $1 billion by the point 2025 ends.
Manufacturing Statistics
Manufacturing Quantity: As of 2025, hemp is cultivated throughout 100,000 hectares throughout Canada, with manufacturing capability anticipated to surge past 94,000 tonnes by 2025 finish. With growing demand, a sturdy trade, and Govt help, Canada is quick changing into one of many largest producers of commercial hemp.
Major Strengths: In Canada, trade hemp manufacturing is primarily focussed on hemp seeds and grain, however steadily, the demand for material is growing.
Key Areas: 90% of hemp in Canada is cultivated in and round Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
As shared earlier, the College of Manitoba is main analysis developments in hemp breeding and agronomy, empowering farmers to create stronger and extra highly effective sorts of hemp.
Regulatory Protocols
After industrial hemp was legalized in 1998, cultivation, sale, distribution, and utilization of hemp in Canada is managed below the Managed Medication and Substances Act (CDSA) (just for industrial hemp, which has lower than 0.3% THC.
One attention-grabbing growth that occurred in Canada is that industrial hemp now contains derivatives from particular plant elements, in case they don’t have remoted or concentrated phytocannabinoids. This has allowed extra wide-scale industrial utilization of hemp throughout completely different industries similar to drugs/pharma, biofuels, and bioplastics.
For leisure sale of hashish, the federal government mandates the distribution of Shopper Data Paperwork with each cargo.
USA: Champion Of CBD
Historic Context
From China, hemp travelled to Europe, and from there, it reached the American continent within the seventeenth century, the place sailors used hemp to make sturdy and sturdy rope, sails, and fabric.
Within the early 1900s, the utilization of hemp was at its peak. It’s mentioned that Henry Ford, after creating the enduring Mannequin T automotive, produced a prototype of a automotive, which was 100% constructed from hemp. He even wished to run that automotive utilizing biofuels constructed from hemp.
Critics hailed that prototype as an invincible automotive, resulting from its power and sturdiness. Widespread Mechanics journal, famously described hemp because the “new billion-dollar crop” in an article in 1938.
However abruptly, because of the leisure utilization of marijuana, the US Authorities imposed the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937, which banned the cultivation and utilization of the hemp plant throughout the nation.
Moreover, because of the introduction of artificial merchandise, the utilization of commercial hemp declined severely and virtually stopped.
The turning level got here in 2014, when the US Authorities handed the 2014 Farm Invoice, permitting cultivation of hemp, just for analysis functions.
Market Worth
In 2023, the general market of the hemp trade was near $1.6 billion, which is projected to achieve $25 billion by 2032, rising at a CAGR of 21%. It’s estimated that hemp is being cultivated throughout 80,000-90,000 hectares.
Manufacturing Statistics
Manufacturing Quantity: As of now, the USA makes use of hemp throughout 25,000 merchandise in industries similar to automotive, development, private care, cosmetics, meals and drinks, meals dietary supplements, textiles, paper, and lots of different industries and extra.
Major Strengths: Round 8 million kilos of floral hemp is grown within the US yearly, whereas 3.11 kilos of grain hemp is cultivated yearly. Amongst manufacturing of hemp manufacturing, the USA leads the world in CBD-infused merchandise, together with oils, edibles, and topicals.
Hemp fiber is one other very upcoming product, as greater than 50 million kilos of hemp have been produced in 2023, just for making hemp material. Round 4053 kilos of hemp is produced each hectare within the USA.
Key Areas: Within the US, hemp is primarily cultivated in Utah, Kentucky, Oregon, Colorado, and California.
Regulatory Protocols
Hemp was first legally allowed to be cultivated in 2014, below the 2014 Farm Invoice, however just for analysis and medical functions.
Below the 2018 Farm Invoice, hemp was faraway from the definition of marijuana after which declared as hashish with a THC focus of lower than 0.3%. Since then, the cultivation and sale of commercial hemp have been allowed throughout the USA.
Nonetheless, cultivation and sale of marijuana are authorized throughout solely these states:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia (gross sales anticipated to begin), Washington, West Virginia (pending laws), Washington D.C.
Able to Be part of the Hemp Revolution?
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