FRANKFORT, Ky. — The window to apply for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s 2024 hemp licensing program is now open, Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Ryan Quarles has announced.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) administers Kentucky’s hemp licensing program and hosts an online application portal on its hemp webpage, kyagr.com/hemp. Grower applications, including renewals, must be submitted by March 15, 2024. New processor/handler applications may be submitted year-round. Annual processor/handler license renewals must be submitted by Dec. 31.
During the last application period, KDA licensed 170 hemp growers to cultivate up to 4,050 acres and 71 hemp processors and handlers for 2023. Of the 170 hemp grower licenses, about 60 licensees planted hemp, growing just over 1,500 acres this year.
The 2023 numbers continue to reflect national trends for hemp production. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) crop acreage data reported to the Farm Service Agency, 22,275 acres of hemp were planted nationally in 2023. That is up slightly from 20,677 in 2022 but down from 35,395 acres in 2021 and 147,471 reported to USDA in 2019.
Kentucky hemp processors and handlers, in an end-of-the-year filing to the KDA, reported $43.5 million in gross product sales in 2022. That compares with $43.4 million in gross product sales in 2021, $130 million in 2020 and $193 million in 2019. Processors reported spending $23.6 million on capital investment projects in 2022 compared to $33.7 million in capital investments in 2021, $138.9 million in 2020, and $207.3 million in 2019.
For more information about the KDA’s hemp program, go to kyagr.com/hemp.
