Polish hemp fields have practically doubled this yr, reaching roughly 2,171 hectares by the top of July because the variety of registered producers continues to rise below a simplified regulatory system launched 4 years in the past.
The 2026 space is up 89% from 1,146 hectares on the finish of 2025 and is the very best recorded since Poland changed its outdated cultivation-permit system with a nationwide registry in 2022, in line with the Nationwide Middle for Agricultural Help (KOWR), the federal government company that maintains the nation’s industrial hemp registry,
‘Actual demand’
“There may be actual demand behind it this time, versus the earlier uptick” in Polish fields, stated Polish hemp veteran Maciej Kowalski of main European hemp firm Kombinat Konopny, noting {that a} bump in complete hemp fields to greater than 3,000 hectares in 2020 was pushed primarily by speculators on the tail finish of the worldwide CBD bust.
The present enlargement additionally seems to be totally different to Witold Czeszak, who heads the Polish Hemp Program on the Institute of Pure Fibers and Medicinal Vegetation (IWNiRZ), a state analysis heart. “With grain and fiber varieties dominating fields once more, Poland’s hemp sector is transferring again towards its roots within the crop’s conventional industrial foundations,” he stated.
The variety of registered growers this yr reached 1,681 by July 31, up from 1,592 on the finish of 2025 and 425 through the transition yr in 2022, KOWR reported. The variety of corporations and different entities registered to purchase hemp from growers has moved in the wrong way, falling from 87 in 2024 to 76 this yr.
Poland’s 2022 reforms eradicated annual cultivation permits and regional restrictions, changing them with registration by KOWR whereas setting the nationwide THC restrict at 0.3%.
The reforms adopted a number of years of ups and downs. Polish hemp fields peaked at roughly 3,500 hectares in 2020, earlier than collapsing because the CBD biomass market unraveled and issues with the favored FINOLA grain selection blocked EU subsidies for hemp.
Grain leads
Henola, a Polish grain selection developed at IWNiRz, at the moment accounts for about 833 hectares, greater than one-third of the nation’s hemp fields. FINOLA, a Finnish selection, has in the meantime rebounded amongst Polish grain growers; Poland’s Białobrzeskie and France’s Futura 75, each primarily fiber varieties, are additionally among the many most generally planted cultivars in Poland.
Grain demand in Poland is being pushed primarily by the animal feed subsector, with some farmers reporting their hemp crops are bringing in additional earnings than different conventional grains. Hemp stakeholders in Poland hope to construct on the feed market to develop protein powders and related high-nutrition dietary supplements for human consumption.
The biggest hemp farming areas in Poland this yr are within the Lubelskie area in japanese Poland on the Ukrainian border; and the Warmińsko-Mazurskie and Kujawsko-Pomorskie areas in north-central Poland.
