Midwest Hemp Producers Association president Tom Raffety wonders what might have been.
“The CBD industry was promising such high returns that everyone got the fever and started raising return CBD production,” Raffety told The Center Square. “That’s when the price fell out and since then a lot of the enthusiasm has been tempered.”
While many like Hemp Haven owner Jay Humfeld are relishing the thought of cashing in on the first hemp harvest in more than eight decades, Raffety isn’t sure about what it might bring.
“I would caution anyone not to get too excited,” he said. “It’s already June, which means on the growth side it would be getting in really late. The value of the product has really just begun to plummet. There’s been such a flood some have gotten out of extraction. It’s really disappointing to have had the opportunity and not to have been able to get it done.”
Still, with over 20,000 users and hemp strains being used for everything from furniture, sneakers, plastic and clothes, Humfeld, who is described as a pioneer in the industry, is excited by the possibilities.
“This is the future of the industry,” he told Fox News. “So, being in the forefront at this time is kind of exciting.”
Again, Raffety is much more tempered.
“I think if we can get the fiber side of the industry growing in the U.S. that could be good,” he said. “But with that, we’ve got to recreate an industry we’ve been destroying for years and that will take time. When it comes to that, very little research has been done or data compiled. I think there can be a bright future if you get past the CBD side and look to the fiber side.”
Raffety said much of the blame for some of the uneasiness he senses in the industry falls on the shoulder of the government.
“It’s disappointing because the FDA needed to make a business-friendly ruling in CBD long ago that would have allowed large companies to get involve and start using a lot of CBD,” he said. “Really, the products and potential growth industries have just failed to materialize.”
