Just as the marijuana industry has exploded in recent years, so too has a sector that revolves around the plant’s non-psychoactive cousin: hemp.
In particular, demand for hemp-based Cannabidiol has skyrocketed, especially since a 2013 CNN report about the success in Colorado of Charlotte’s Web, a CBD product that helped a young epileptic girl control her seizures.
That success and the resulting demand across the nation for more CBD-based health products helped give birth to a new industry that parallels the larger cannabis market.
Hemp-based Cannabidiol products, unlike CBD-heavy marijuana strains, also can be legally ordered on the internet and shipped across state lines, further fueling growth.
“The sales just continued to grow week after week,” Quinatzin De La Torre, president of Bluebird Botanicals, said about the business climate after the company’s launch in 2013. “It seemed like we were hiring a new person every week just to keep up with the pace of growth.”
The hemp CBD market has reached an estimated retail value of $688 million in the United States alone, according to a 2017 market estimate by the Hemp Business Journal. A spokesman for Vote Hemp also estimated there are likely 50-100 hemp cannabidiol brands, along with hundreds more growers and processors that focus on hemp-based CBD.
Part of the reason for the massive growth is that many businesses find it’s easier to simply purchase wholesale CBD extracts from another company that’s taken care of the growing and extraction process, and then re-bottle oils and tinctures with their own brand. The practice is called “white labeling”. “There’s only a couple suppliers that really make organically grown CBD in the country, and there are hundreds of distributors. Most people won’t tell you that, because they’re not growing their own hemp.”
Along with the growing presence of hemp-based CBD companies come increased profits. Not only that, but the market for American hemp products – unlike that of marijuana – is global.
Barriers to cannabis-related research in the United States have kept hemp-based CBD products and others from making specific claims to health benefits, since there’s a dearth of solid scientific evidence to back up any benefits from CBD or other cannabinoids found in either hemp or marijuana. But many in the hemp business believe that’s going to change.
Currently, a bill co-sponsored by both Dem and GOP leaders is in front of Congress which paves the way for further development of Hemp industry growth in the US.
“Our primary focus right now is to identify sort of that sweet spot where we believe the industry is headed, which is somewhere between a heavily regulated FDA nutraceutical company, and a sub-pharmaceutical company,” said Elixinol’s Ettenson.
Some companies already are obtaining their hemp from Colorado and Kentucky instead of from Europe, Canada or China (three of the major international hemp producers), and that’s likely to keep growing.
Hemp also presents a big opportunity for those in the agricultural industry whose crops may not be getting as large a price at market as they once did. That’s the situation in Kentucky, a deep red conservative state that has embraced the resurgence of hemp.
Such acceptance will have ripple effects for the larger cannabis economy, as well as for even more ancillary businesses, Titus said. So there you have it. An exciting overview of what is to come, and where we are today in the industry. Read more...OOCORP HealthCare Blog
In particular, demand for hemp-based Cannabidiol has skyrocketed, especially since a 2013 CNN report about the success in Colorado of Charlotte’s Web, a CBD product that helped a young epileptic girl control her seizures.
That success and the resulting demand across the nation for more CBD-based health products helped give birth to a new industry that parallels the larger cannabis market.
Hemp-based Cannabidiol products, unlike CBD-heavy marijuana strains, also can be legally ordered on the internet and shipped across state lines, further fueling growth.
“The sales just continued to grow week after week,” Quinatzin De La Torre, president of Bluebird Botanicals, said about the business climate after the company’s launch in 2013. “It seemed like we were hiring a new person every week just to keep up with the pace of growth.”
The hemp CBD market has reached an estimated retail value of $688 million in the United States alone, according to a 2017 market estimate by the Hemp Business Journal. A spokesman for Vote Hemp also estimated there are likely 50-100 hemp cannabidiol brands, along with hundreds more growers and processors that focus on hemp-based CBD.
Part of the reason for the massive growth is that many businesses find it’s easier to simply purchase wholesale CBD extracts from another company that’s taken care of the growing and extraction process, and then re-bottle oils and tinctures with their own brand. The practice is called “white labeling”. “There’s only a couple suppliers that really make organically grown CBD in the country, and there are hundreds of distributors. Most people won’t tell you that, because they’re not growing their own hemp.”
Along with the growing presence of hemp-based CBD companies come increased profits. Not only that, but the market for American hemp products – unlike that of marijuana – is global.
Barriers to cannabis-related research in the United States have kept hemp-based CBD products and others from making specific claims to health benefits, since there’s a dearth of solid scientific evidence to back up any benefits from CBD or other cannabinoids found in either hemp or marijuana. But many in the hemp business believe that’s going to change.
Currently, a bill co-sponsored by both Dem and GOP leaders is in front of Congress which paves the way for further development of Hemp industry growth in the US.
“Our primary focus right now is to identify sort of that sweet spot where we believe the industry is headed, which is somewhere between a heavily regulated FDA nutraceutical company, and a sub-pharmaceutical company,” said Elixinol’s Ettenson.
Some companies already are obtaining their hemp from Colorado and Kentucky instead of from Europe, Canada or China (three of the major international hemp producers), and that’s likely to keep growing.
Hemp also presents a big opportunity for those in the agricultural industry whose crops may not be getting as large a price at market as they once did. That’s the situation in Kentucky, a deep red conservative state that has embraced the resurgence of hemp.
Such acceptance will have ripple effects for the larger cannabis economy, as well as for even more ancillary businesses, Titus said. So there you have it. An exciting overview of what is to come, and where we are today in the industry. Read more...OOCORP HealthCare Blog
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