U.S. hemp fiber production has become the country’s dominant hemp output by physical volume, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) analysis confirmed. But while farmers are rapidly expanding production, fiber remains a low-value crop.
Hemp production used for fiber reached about 65 million pounds in 2025, up from roughly 20 million pounds in 2022, according the report, from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS). Harvested fiber acreage rose from fewer than 7,000 acres to nearly 22,000 over the same period, the report showed.
The analysis, included as a special article in ERS’s September Cotton and Wool Outlook, draws on annual National Hemp Report data from USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). It puts hemp into the agency’s broader analysis of U.S. and global fiber markets.
Dual-cropping question
USDA also said dual cropping of grain and fiber – a strategy promoted in some circles – “has failed to gain popularity due to agronomic limitations.”
“These constraints result from differences in desired plant outcomes such as growing tall plants with narrow stems for fiber versus plants with moderate branching for grain/hempseed oil. Plant density and harvest timing are also limiting factors,” according to the article. “As a result, dual-purpose hemp production is not as agronomically viable as focusing on one product.”
Fiber takes lead
Fiber accounted for at least half of all U.S. outdoor industrial hemp acreage harvested from 2023 through 2025. By volume, it represented 60% to 80% of utilized industrial hemp production from 2022 through 2025, according to the special article.
ERS also found that U.S. hemp fiber production surpassed domestic wool production in 2023, putting hemp second only to cotton among agricultural fibers produced in the country.
Fiber production is concentrated in a handful of states. Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas accounted for 56% of U.S. hemp fiber output in 2025, with Kansas alone representing about 30%, according to USDA. State comparisons are difficult, however, because USDA withholds some data to protect individual producers.
More for less
The expansion has not translated into stronger returns for growers.
NASS reported earlier this year that 2025 fiber production reached 67.3 million pounds, up 11% from 2024, while harvested acreage increased 14% to 21,693 acres – while the farm value of the crop fell 13% to $13.5 million.
That continued an imbalance already evident in the annual USDA crop statistics: output and acreage have expanded while fiber prices remain depressed.
ERS calculated that growers received an average of just 24 cents per pound for fiber during 2023-2025, compared with $24.50 per pound for floral hemp. Fiber represented only 2% of the $646 million value of all outdoor hemp production in 2025, while flowers – a sector in peril and likely to be wiped out altogether – generated $574 million, or 89%.
Room to grow
Hemp remains a tiny part of the wider fiber economy. Global fiber production reached 132 million metric tons in 2024, with petroleum-based synthetics representing about 69%. Hemp accounted for just 0.2% of all global fiber production and about 1% of natural fibers, according to USDA.
According to USDA, France led reported global hemp fiber production in 2024, followed by China, the United States and the Netherlands. Together, the four countries accounted for roughly 80% of worldwide output.