Industrial Hemp’s Market Potential Is Nearly Double Consumable Cannabis’ Potential
One of the most insightful moments for me at the recent International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin occurred during leading international cannabis economist Beau Whitney’s presentation. Mr. Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, provided a keynote address at the event in which he examined a multitude of important industry data points.
As part of his presentation, Beau Whitney compared the market potential of industrial hemp to the market potential for the medical and adult-use cannabis consumables sectors. Industrial hemp has historically been, and continues to be, an important source of material for several large industries.
Whitney listed several major industries that currently rely on industrial hemp as a source material, or that may in the future, including the automotive industry, textiles, building materials, batteries, shopping bags, cutlery equipment, health supplements, skin care, energy drinks, and animal feed.
Industrial hemp can also be used for many other purposes, including such things as bioremediation efforts. However, relying on just the previously mentioned large industries and combining hemp’s potential industry share of each of them, Mr. Whitney projected that the value of the global industrial hemp industry could be $456.2 billion.
Whitney compared that market potential to his estimated potential global market value for medical and adult-use cannabis consumables, as seen in the image below:
As you can see, Beau Whitney’s estimate for the potential global medical and adult-use cannabis market is roughly $237.8 billion, and the market potential for industrial hemp is about 192% greater in comparison.
Whitney’s presentation slide references the increasing opportunities for industrial hemp in Europe, and many other regions of the world are also experiencing an increase in industrial hemp industry opportunities.
“A new era has begun for Kazakhstan’s agricultural and industrial policy, as the government officially approved the cultivation of industrial hemp and launched a pilot initiative that aims to encourage wider adoption among farmers and manufacturers.” Hemp Today recently reported on the Central Asia nation.
“A source of great anxiety for the cannabis sector, the regulation of hemp cultivation will be published by May 19, confirmed a member of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock,” reported Sechat in recent days regarding Brazil’s efforts to boost its domestic industrial hemp industry in South America (translated from Portuguese to English).
On the African continent, Botswana continues to take steps to build its industrial hemp industry, with the nation’s Director of Institute of Energy and Technology Development, Charity Kennedy, recently touting the ‘job creation and environmental healing’ potential of a thriving domestic industrial hemp industry, and that industrial hemp can benefit the nation’s ‘engineering, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, mining rehabilitation, pharmaceuticals, and climate-smart innovations’ industries.