Economic Benefits

Ok, I understand that hemp paper is vastly superior to its wood counterpart when you look at its environmental benefits, but what about the $$? What are the economic factors affecting the hemp paper industry?

This is a difficult question to ask, in fact many of the driving economic factors are the very same reasons the hemp industry as a whole is being held back! Let me explain…

Hemp paper is one of the highest quality papers on the market. This being so it has a higher price. The cost to produce hemp paper is significantly higher than that of regular wood paper; this is due to two factors - plants and profit margins.

First let’s look at plants. The higher cost of hemp paper isn't due to the fact that it cost more to produce, simply the lack of competition in the market place the cost of producing wood paper is so low due to over 10,000 paper mills competing on a global market. There are only a handful of hemp paper mills in the world and most are designed for specialty hemp paper (those needed for cigarette paper or bibles). This lack of hemp mills makes simply creating hemp paper the hardest part.

The second part of the problem is the hemp plant. The hemp plant is one of the most versatile plants on the planet and can produce over 7 tons of raw materials per acre! However, to produce the hemp paper you need a strain of the hemp plant that produces lots of fiber. These specialty strains simply haven't been given enough time to be properly developed due to the infancy of the modern hemp industry. Once the hemp industry takes off globally you will see an abundance of hemp paper mills being created and old wood mills being repurposed to suit the needs of the new hemp industry. Additionally, once the industry takes off, farmers can perfect strains of hemp that produce multiple desirable qualities such as large seed AND large fiber production.

So it’s a new industry, why should farmers go out and grow hemp specialized for paper if the mills that create hemp paper don’t exist yet?

Diversity. Hemp is one of the sturdiest plants available and will grow in almost any climate. The hemp plant also helps to restore damaged soil. The long roots of the plant help to aerate the soil and the “retting” or dew rotting process restores vital nutrients to the soil. All of this results in a plant that requires no herbicides or pesticides and can be grown in the off season to ready the field for the next year of crops.

Not only can the hemp plant be grown cheaply, but every part of the hemp plant can be sold and profited upon. The hemp plant can be made into over 50,000 known products ranging from houses and cars to beauty products and food. This creates very high profits for farmers willing to take a stake in this new industry.

Besides the wide variety of products that the hemp plant can be made into, what’s the benefit of hemp paper?

In short? Jobs. To produce hemp paper, thousands of jobs will be created; an entire new industry will be born. The entire process from seed to sheet directly creates thousands of jobs and the indirect effect could number in the millions. The farming industry will demand more farmers, unskilled field workers and skilled farm machine operators. The paper mills will need to be built, creating new construction jobs. Even more, old plants will be converted creating new more specialized renovation crews.  Finally, once the paper mills are there, countless hemp paper companies will be competing for business and driving the price down, making the entire process cheaper and more affordable, adding fuel to the burning cycle of industry. This growing cycle will continue until the demand is met. Once that happens, an entirely new and stable industry will be born. This new industry will benefit every aspect of the country it operates in, either through the millions of dollars in taxes it will pay or the thousands of jobs it creates or simply the cleaner air we can all breathe.