Hemp farming in France: 5 facts and figures for 2026

In the Eurostat series, updated on 10 September 2026, France is far ahead of the other EU countries. Its hemp area gained more than 3,000 hectares in three years and peaked in 2024.

According to the European Commission, France accounts for more than 60% of EU production, followed by Germany (17%) and the Netherlands (5%). The sector sheet from FranceAgriMer, the French public agency for agricultural products, places it third worldwide after China and Canada. The area has increased fivefold since 1990, when it stood at 4,000 ha. In 2023 the trade body InterChanvre counted 1,700 growers, and FranceAgriMer counted 7 "chanvrières", the processing plants, all located in the northern half of the country. Our article on hemp areas in Europe gives the figures country by country.

Sowing starts in April, and the plant can exceed two metres in height. FranceAgriMer describes two ways to harvest it. When only straw is wanted, the crop is cut at the end of flowering, from mid-August. To collect seed as well, farmers wait for it to ripen in September and harvest both seed and straw. One hectare yields 6 to 8 tonnes of straw, about 25% of which is fibre, plus close to one tonne of seed.

Once cut, the straw lies on the ground for 10 to 20 days. During this retting, water and soil micro-organisms break down the binder that attaches the fibres to the core of the stem. A mechanical step called scutching then separates the fibre from the shiv, which is the woody inner core crushed into granules.

FranceAgriMer lists the plant's agronomic advantages. It needs no pesticide treatment, resists drought well enough to do without irrigation and requires little nitrogen or phosphorus. Its deep roots also structure the soil for the following crop. The climate figures come from the sector itself: InterChanvre claims 9 to 15 tonnes of CO₂ stored per hectare per year, while FranceAgriMer uses 15 tonnes per hectare.

The roots have a further effect. A 2022 review in Plants presents hemp as a good candidate for phytoremediation, in which a plant draws pollutants out of the soil, because it tolerates the accumulation of various metals. Grown on polluted land, it can concentrate them in its tissues. For a CBD product, the location of the field and heavy-metal testing therefore count. Our article on heavy metals in CBD explains the limits and how they are measured.

Processing produces four products whose share of the harvest by weight differs from their share of turnover. In InterChanvre data reproduced by FranceAgriMer, shiv accounts for 45% of the weight and 27% of the value, and fibre for 28% of the weight and 50% of the value.

Exports have risen sharply in recent seasons, from 415 tonnes in 2021/2022 to 21,460 tonnes in 2022/2023, mostly within the European Union. Food-grade seed pressed into oil is unrelated to CBD oil, as our article on hemp seed oil explains. No series cited here gives the area devoted to flowers separately. FranceAgriMer calls flower-top extracts "a new sector in the making", slowed by regulatory questions.

In its article R. 5132-86, the Public Health Code prohibits growing cannabis, "its plant and its resin". Hemp may be grown only under the conditions of the order of 30 December 2021, whose article 1 states the rule:

"Only active farmers within the meaning of the European and national regulations in force may grow hemp flowers and leaves."

Crops must start from certified seed, and selling plants or taking cuttings is banned. The variety must appear in the catalogue and contain no more than 0.30% delta-9-THC. According to the Commission, the EU catalogue listed 116 hemp varieties in 2024, and FranceAgriMer counts 13 certified in France. Common Agricultural Policy payments carry the same conditions: less than 0.3% THC and certified seed. Along with Poland and Romania, France is one of three countries paying coupled support for hemp.

The Conseil d'État annulled on 29 December 2022 the ban on selling flowers to consumers and left these growing rules untouched. A private individual therefore may not grow hemp, even of an authorised variety, as our article on CBD seeds explains. Our article on authorised hemp varieties describes how a variety enters the catalogue.

In botanical terms, farm hemp and THC-rich cannabis belong to one species, Cannabis sativa L. They are told apart by the variety, bred to produce little THC, and by the measured content. Which law applies depends on the part of the plant and how it is used.

The Ministry of Agriculture restated on 20 May 2026 that foods containing CBD are not authorised under the novel food regulation; only seeds, their derivatives and leaves for infusion remain allowed as food. Cosmetics come under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. This split is detailed in our overview of CBD regulation in 2026, and the botanical differences in our article on hemp and recreational cannabis. The CBD flowers in the catalogue come from these authorised varieties. The history of hemp in France follows the crop from naval rope-making to today's sector.