When Europe can’t process its hemp, it’s imported from China. However, recent complaints have suggested that European producers are dissatisfied with the quality of Chinese hemp.
This emerging issue has created an immediate opportunity for high-quality, high-oil content producers from the US to capture market share. Creating universal production standards, grading, or other quality assurance certification could significantly increase the marketability of US hemp in the eyes of major European buyers.
US exports got an even more significant boost last December when the EU harmonized its regulations with the US and raised the THC levels for industrial hemp crops from 0.2% to 0.3%.
That’s excellent news for the American hemp industry. But the European Union’s harmonizing the regulation that governs THC levels in crops isn’t enough because there are still different standards for what’s allowed in the field versus what’s allowed in the market.
Take France, for instance, which produces 40% of the industrial hemp in Europe, but it remains illegal to process any hemp products that contain THC. CBD, however, can still be sold in France if it was produced legally in another country within the EU.
So, for US hemp growers and producers of hemp-derived products, it’s essential to understand the nuances of not just the EU’s new Common Agriculture Policy; it’s necessary to understand the regulations of each member state and what’s acceptable and what’s not.
Another barrier to US exports that must be addressed is standards at the various ports of entry and along the supply chain. While there is standard governance from the EU, each nation-state has its directives. For US exporters, it’s essential to understand these directives for each country.
For instance, hemp exported into Europe may face quarantines at the port of entry or different transportation regulations in each country. Take a product being shipped to Switzerland, for example.
Exporters must meet the standards at the entry point, but they also must meet the transportation protocols in each nation that the product will travel through. We must have harmonized standards for import and logistics.