Measuring Global Exports of Industrial Hemp Products: Insights from National Product Classifications

The incomplete coverage of hemp products in trade statistics poses a challenge to gaining a thorough understanding of existing industrial hemp markets, including the valuation of global exports for each specific hemp product. In international trade statistics, particularly in the UN COMTRADE database using the six-digit level of the Harmonized System (HS) classification, only three hemp-related products are included. Other recognized hemp products, such as hemp seeds, lack dedicated six-digit HS codes. This implies that a substantial portion of hemp product trade, the extent of which is unknown, remains unaccounted for in international product classifications. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the scale and composition of international trade in hemp products, this study explored national sources of trade statistics in addition to the information provided by UN COMTRADE.