Price Commentary
The most notable development this month is that our aggregate assessed price for CBD Biomass experienced an uptick for the first time since Hemp Benchmarks began reporting prices in April 2019. The increase was due mainly to rises in rates for smaller-volume deals, while larger transactions essentially held steady from May. Smokable CBD flower also saw its assessed price rise this month.
June’s price movement suggests that the U.S. hemp industry may have seen the current market bottom for CBD plant material. As we discuss below, however, many growers are still sitting on 2019’s production. At this point, it increasingly appears that unsold or unmoved biomass generated last year will be a loss in most cases, with a new crop underway and 2020’s harvest only a few months off.
Prices for Refined CBD extracts were also up for the most part, with only Full-Spectrum CBD Distillate seeing a month-over-month decline. The assessed price for THC Free CBD Distillate jumped by 16% compared to May. The bankruptcies and financial difficulties of several large extraction operations has resulted in processing capacity being taken offline, which may be contributing to the stabilization and increase in rates for refined CBD oils. The assessed price for Crude CBD oil continued to slide in June, though, with a 32% month-over-month drop observed. Reports from the field state that processor inventories remain robust generally.
