Legal framework verified on 12 August 2026. Campaign calendars and inspection procedures are set annually: check them for your own campaign before making any decision.
This first step is not about light or growing medium. It is about the legal framework within which you are allowed to produce, because that framework decides everything else: what you may sow, what you may not propagate, what you must declare, and what an inspector will come to check in your field one July morning. A grower who discovers these rules after setting up their room has already lost money.
Who is allowed to produce, and nobody else
The rule fits in one sentence, written in section I of Article 1 of the French decree of 30 December 2021: only active farmers, within the meaning of the European and national regulations in force, may grow hemp flowers and leaves.
This condition applies specifically to flowers and leaves, and it does not depend on any intention to sell. It excludes the private individual, however passionate, however well equipped. It excludes the entrepreneur who sets up a company without farming status. Active farmer status is not a statement of intent: it is a status defined by the Common Agricultural Policy regulations, with its own conditions and supporting documents.
If you do not yet hold that status, the most profitable step in your project is not buying equipment: it is having your situation and the structure of your farm checked by the chamber of agriculture and by the DDT (French departmental directorate for territories) of your department.
