“It’s a bad situation for a lot of hemp growers and processors and retailers.”

Author: Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Richmond-based Bingo Beer officially entered the growing national market for hemp-derived THC products when it introduced THC seltzers earlier this year.

The non-alcoholic beverage option is growing nationwide as an alternative for people looking to cut back on or eliminate alcohol altogether. A recent Gallup poll showed that the percentage of Americans who drink alcohol has dropped to 54 percent.

Analysts and farmers say, however, that the hemp-based THC industry could come to an abrupt halt by November of next year, as Congress voted to ban most hemp-derived THC products in a last-minute government spending bill that ended a last-minute government shutdown.

THC seltzers and other hemp-based products are a “large and growing segment of the economy,” Bingo Beer co-owner Jay Bayer told the Mercury earlier this year.

“I don’t think the solution is to put the genie back in the bottle,” Bayer said on a recent call. He added that offering THC products has been an “exception” for some in the alcoholic beverage industry, as long as they meet the needs of consumers.

But like Virginia continues to explore the legal cannabis marketBayer is exploring possible ways to pivot.

“If we switched from marijuana to THC, consumers would come with us,” he said.

An uncertain future

Hemp businesses across the nation are trying to map out their next steps. In North Carolina, for example, hemp businesses are facing potential legal battles to defend their industry, as in other states where cannabis is not legal.

“We can’t pivot,” Dana Burham, co-owner of Otherside Hemp, he told NC Newsline last month.

But Virginia is in a “privileged” space, Pure Shenandoah co-owner Tanner Johnson said on a recent call. He runs the company with his siblings, whose products run the gamut of industrial hemp’s uses, from a “hemp” research contract awarded in 2023 with the US Air Force to supplying Bingo Beer’s THC seltzer.

As Congress laid out the foundations for the industry in 2018, Johnson compared the hemp-restricted provision in the government spending bill to pulling the “rug” out from under people. But companies like his have diversified portfolios and may find it easier to do business in Virginia than in states where legal cannabis markets do not exist or are forthcoming. However, he said, he is taking care of things at the national level.

As a representative of the Virginia Cannabis Association, he will also provide legislators with insights and ideas to craft and pass legislation to enable the new market.

“It’s a bad situation for a lot of hemp growers and processors and retailers,” Johnson said. “But in Virginia, we almost feel like we’re threading a needle where this industry is closing as another industry is opening.”

This story was first published by the Virginia Mercury.

Brendan Cleak’s photo.

Despite the initial boom and great promises of great opportunities, the hemp sector is struggling in many countries around the world. From the recent hemp ban in the US, to a similar ban in Italy, which has effectively halted the growth of this industry.

Effects of hemp prohibition
Among the 3,000 companies associated with Canapa Sativa Italia (CSI) – the Italian hemp industry association – 10% closed after the hemp ban amendment was signed. Another 10% are preparing to go abroad. Numbers can be interpreted in many ways, one of these interpretations paints a space under pressure. The reality is that the Italian hemp market continues to expand despite a regulatory structure that struggles to treat it as agriculture.

Research commissioned by CSI and conducted by MPG Consulting in April 2025 shows a very detailed picture. The flower market is worth 1,960 million euros, with 22,379 full-time employees in the supply chain. The study of the economist Davide Fortin and the lawyer Maria Paola Liotti, presented in the Chamber of Deputies on April 2, portrays an area that already behaves like modern agriculture. “It creates value, it supports jobs, and it does so with a sustainability profile that many other crops would envy. What it still lacks is institutional recognition,” they say.

Mattia Cusani, one of the first members of CSI and now its president, farms legal hemp on the Sila plateau. For him, potential is not an abstraction. He describes the hemp chain as a ready-made model of the circular economy. “Production methods, crop variability, use of residues from crop lines. It all exists,” he says. “All that is missing is a technical desk for operation and the removal of several long-standing legal knots. At the center of this stalled system sit workers between the ages of 25 and 40. They form one of the few agricultural sectors that is expanding rapidly in the country. Moreover, they belong to the generation that has experienced the worst economic shocks in recent years.”

Along with other associations, the CSI also demands a basic alignment from Brussels. “The express inclusion of flowers among the plant parts authorized for use. Treating open field and greenhouse cultivation equally. Maintaining the full legality of industrial uses such as seeds and fibers. And unifying police controls through a single ministerial decree, because today’s practices vary a lot and create uncertainty and pressure on farms.”

© Azienda Agricola Vamperti

Stories from the field
Two entrepreneurs who built their businesses legally now face confiscations caused by changes to the hemp ban.

In Rome, Noemi closed her shop at the beginning of November. He is 34 years old, with a degree in archaeology. For years he worked paid shifts at restaurants to cover expenses. In 2017, he and a flatmate invested what little they had to enter the hemp market. They opened a small shop selling Carmagnola and Futura 75, two of the varieties allowed for cultivation. Over the years, that store became a reference in a difficult neighborhood without a real meeting place. They refused to expand the franchise of foreign chains and focused on a single local store. A few days of legal confusion erased all that.

In Sardinia, the agricultural company Orti Castello seized more than 8,000 plants at the end of October 2025. The intervention report lists 2,467 items, even counting already cut stems mislabeled as sprouts. Each plant was grown from certified seed and was low in THC. Now the company is waiting to release its crop. For Massimiliano Quai and his colleagues, the shock is not limited to the lost inventory. The farm has already had thefts in the field despite the presence of guards. All this within a company that has grown continuously since 2018, through biological methods and consistent demand.

Massimiliano repeats the same idea. “Our best year has always been the next,” he says. “The store moves about 500 euros a day. Tea and honey sell fast. Only since the beginning of 2025, purchases have reached 62,910 euros. In all these years, we have had 6 months of flat or negative results. Everything else has been a constant upward movement. The plan is simple. Stay in Sardinia and consolidate. We only have to be open once, we have chosen a second site abroad. In Italy, in 2018, the political climate seemed favorable.”

MPG Consulting research places these stories within two possible futures. “According to the current model, the diverse ecosystem of shops, e-commerce platforms and tobacco shops keeps the market close to 1,960 million euros. Employment remains high, the supply chain remains diverse. The alternative is a state monopoly controlled by tobacco shops, with a tax burden of 56.5. In this scenario, the market would have a direct and indirect impact of more than 144,000 million euros. evaporate, and employment would fall to around 6,000 workers.”

However, demand grows. “The lack of commercial communication is not slowing down the market. Many are choosing hemp flowers as a substitute for tobacco rather than a substitute. It becomes part of the process of moving away from one of the most harmful and addictive substances available.”

A bunch of growers
MPG Consulting also maps the crop side. Small growers sell everything directly. Medium producers divided between retail and wholesale. Large growers rely on standardized varieties and volumes. Medium plants are the innovative key of the whole chain. They test varieties, refine phenotypes and drive the system forward. They are also the weakest link if a monopoly model becomes a reality, unlike large growers who can operate in a rigid centralized environment. “The Italian hemp sector grows anyway. The question hanging in the air is not whether it can grow, but whether the rules will ever grow with it.”