Collated from Industrial Hemp license data made publicly available by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry as at June 5, 2020  . . . 

Number of Participants and Issued Licenses

At June 5, 2020, the Louisiana Industrial Hemp program had ninety-four (94) participants with at least one of the four authorized Industrial Hemp licenses.

The ninety-four participants held a total of one hundred nineteen (119) licenses, which licenses were divided among the four license types as follows:

• 75   Grower licenses

• 16   Seed Producer licenses

• 14   Processor licenses

• 14   Carrier/Transporter licenses.

Fifteen participants hold more than one of the four authorized license types, with three of the participants holding all four.

The data available thus far does not reveal which or how many of the seventy-five grower licenses are open field and how many are greenhouse.

With the last days of planting at hand, there may not be much more than just a few additional Grower and Seed Producer licenses this year.

Geographic Distribution

The Industrial Hemp participants licenses are distributed geographically among thirty-eight (38) of the state's sixty-four (64) parishes, and of those thirty-eight, all but one parish has at least one grower-licensed site.

 There is only one license in Bossier and Orleans Parishes, that in Bossier being a Processor license and the single license in Orleans Parish is a Grower license.

The largest number of licensed Growers in any single parish is four; three parishes having that number — the contiguous parishes of St. Landry and Lafayette in the south-central part of the state, and Madison in the northeast.

 Of the fourteen Processors, three are located in the Florida Parishes area, and three in nearby Ascension.  Rounding out the remainder of Processors: Caddo Parish has two, with Bossier, Rapides, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes each having one.

The sixteen Seed Producers are licensed for thirteen parishes, and of those only St, Landry and St. Tammany parishes having two.

There are four Carrier license sites in Rapides Parish, with Caddo, Madison and East Baton Rouge each having two, while Ascension, Terrebonne and Jackson have one each.

Number of Acres Planted in Hemp

During a May legislative committee hearing, Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain testified that by then there had been at or near one thousand acres (outdoor/open field) applied for by Industrial Hemp Growers and Seed Producers combined.  Strain also explained then that of that acreage, there were only seven (7) acres, 300,000 square feet, involving greenhouse (indoor) space.

There is some degree of surprise in the industry at the number of acres state-wide that have been licensed, many expecting there would be up to 200 Grower license applicants and could be as much as eighty thousand (80,000) acres in Industrial Hemp for the 2020 crop year.  Yet, it will be acknowledged by all that there is not any grower alive today in Louisiana with personal experience growing hemp and prudent growers will need and want to be cautions.  Additionally, all can see that the market/processor capability is not what it is for the likes of other commodities such as sugar cane, soybeans, cotton or rice.

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One can be certain that not one hundred percent of Grower licensees will plant hemp, and of those who do, not all will plant the entire number of acres authorized by their license.  Since May is the optimal month to plant hemp and Field Planting Reports must be filed with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry within 15 days of putting in the crop, it will soon be known how large Louisiana's industrial hemp crop will be in this, the inaugural year.

More information and further reading on Louisiana’s Industrial Hemp Program

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Disclaimer: This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.