According to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, Canada’s hemp acreage and export value are both up more than 20% this year.

“The Canadian hemp industry continues to grow in 2020 despite the challenges posed by COVID-19,” CHTA board chairman Keith Jones said in a statement after the group’s annual meeting, held online this year. “Canada seeded some 92,000 hemp acres in 2019, with exports exceeding $110 million Canadian dollars ($85 million).”

Although the final figures for 2020 aren’t in yet, experts anticipate that the numbers will be up roughly 20%, as cannabis is the largest exporter of hemp products to the United States. The bulk of the merchandise is oilseed products from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, stated a representative from the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service.

Canada has limited commercial hemp production to only fiber and grain products until 2018, at which point hemp rules were overturned in that country’s larger Cannabis Act regulating recreational marijuana. Canada now allows commercial cannabinoid production from hemp, too.

“Hemp is here to stay from a regulatory point of view,” Jones said. The CHTA also appointed Ted Haney as president of the group during the organization’s annual conference this year. Haney, who previously held the role of executive director, will also serve as chief executive officer.

In addition to ingestible products, like oil, hemp can be used to manufacture a variety of items. Industrial hemp has long been used in the production of textiles and fabrics, it can be used to make paper, rope, plastic, a concrete-substitute, and even bio-degradable fuel.