Hemp Farmers Can’t Find Places To Sell Crop, Not Enough Processors

Oct 31, 2019 | National

Hemp farmers who spent all summer growing acres of crops are now finding there’s no one willing to buy it.

With the promise of big payouts, farmers across Tennessee joined in on the pilot program. What many didn’t count on was a lack of processors for the product and a lack of demand on the market.

Stanley Holder is one of the owners of Triple H Farms. He and his two sons planted 20 acres this year. They switched from growing and collecting tobacco in 2018 when their warehouse business lost a contract to a major tobacco purchaser.

Now, they can’t find anyone to purchase their hemp. When they started growing, they believed they could make $25 a plant, or $40,000 an acre. However, processors are backing out. In two weeks, Holder will have four acres of hemp ready to ship in a barn on his property.