The most dominant segment in hemp – hemp flower – rides on the coattails of historical cannabis markets. Many of the successful hemp flower growers around the US were involved in the cannabis industry in California and Colorado.  Seeing an opportunity to go home, many growers did just this, leveraging their skills into new jobs or companies. Businesses that staked a claim in hemp flower eagerly hired managers with experience in MJ production.  This segment has been buoyed by healthy demand and continues to reflect some of the strongest hemp prices.    

The extraction segment similarly recruited talent from the MJ side, although many enterprises recruited lab professionals, academia, or food and beverage industry veterans.  On the retail side, professionals from the CPG space have been heavily recruited by cannabis operators on both side of the THC divide.  Horticulture professionals have been recruited steadily for…