Considering what a year 2020 was, especially to an industry as novel as the CBD one, CBD companies are bound to be under a lot of pressure in 2021. The weight on their shoulders becomes even heavier when you add the ever-murky regulations into the mix, under which CBD products are still technically Schedule I substances on a federal level, alongside heroin and LSD.
Nevertheless, industry experts seem to believe that these roadblocks haven’t brought CBD’s momentum to a screeching halt, but on the contrary, the CBD marketplace is reportedly going ahead at full steam.
A report by The Brightfield Group, a data analytics company that specializes in the cannabis and CBD consumer space, provides a few telling pieces of information that together outline an optimistic picture.
For one, hemp-derived CBD sales in the U.S. are expected to surpass last year’s $4.6 billion by 15%, hitting $5.3 billion.
This is in line with Hemp Benchmarks report from November 2020, which showed that hemp market’s volatility, catalyzed by the pandemic, but initially caused by how hot and oversaturated the hemp market became in 2019, is subsiding, making way for stability of hemp prices. This is great news for hemp farmers, who can plan ahead according to revenue and demand and streamline their entire operations, which should all respectively trickle down throughout the entire supply chain.
The 2021 CBD marketplace is expected to become increasingly diverse, with drinks and gummies projected to be the fastest growing product types, marking a 71% and 44% increase in value, respectively. This makes total sense, considering how many innovative CBD concoctions we’ve already been seeing for such an infant niche.
Tinctures, on the other hand, are still expected to keep the lion’s share of the market, at 18% of retail sales in 2021.
Online CBD sales are projected to go down by 4%, going from 42% of the total market in 2020 to an estimated 38% in 2021, or $2.02 billion. This is to be expected, as stores start to open again.
This trend is projected to continue on for the years to come. According to the report by The Brightfield Group, the projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the hemp-derived CBD niche for the period between 2021 and 2026 is 25%. Quince Market Insights foresee the global CBD market’s CAGR to be 51% for the 2021-2030 period.
In other words, CBD is still here and going strong, even amidst the pandemic and stifling regulations.
Image Credits: mohamed mahmoud hassan / public domain pictures
