Europe as a Hemp Export Market? Not So Fast

Posted by Brian Sparks|July 31, 2020

The U.S. Hemp Growers Association (USHGA) is looking at opportunities for export of hemp and hemp products, especially in light of some crop surpluses in 2019 and 2020. There are markets in Latin America and elsewhere.

However, according to USHGA, the European Commission last week surprised many in the hemp industry, including growers in Europe, by delivering a notice to applicants for Novel Foods Status for some hemp products. In this notice, the Commission stated it has made a preliminary conclusion that extracts from flowering and fruiting tops of the hemp plant should be considered a drug under the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. Therefore, it has suspended applications for hemp extracts and natural cannabinoids under the EU Novel Food rules.

The European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) immediately and strongly opposed the decision. The good thing, according to the USHGA, is the word “preliminary” used by the Commission, which means there is time to appeal this decision to the Commission.

“The idea that hemp plants, which have been used as food for centuries, as well as their extracts, would suddenly be categorized as a narcotic under a 60-year-old Convention is troubling and concerning,” the USHGA stated in one of their recent newsletters. “We hope that Europe is not going backwards as hemp moves as a leader in sustainability.”