The CBD industry's peer-reviewed watchdog website, Leafreport.com, released their findings from their latest review of pricing for CBD products.
Leafreport utilized its in-house statisticians to independently review prices of 137 leading brands, representing more than 3,200 products.
“Consumer demand for CBD is on the up and up, with an astonishing array of CBD brands and products now available. But in the midst of this rapidly growing market, it’s vital to check in on pricing, much like we did with our 2020 CBD pricing report published earlier this year,” said Lital Shafir, the head of product at Leafreport. “Our mission at Leafreport is to help promote transparency across the CBD industry and educate consumers so they can access the highest-quality CBD products for the fairest price. Reports like this shed light on the state of the industry, educate consumers and hopefully push companies to be more fair about their pricing.”
To create a standardized pricing reference point, Leafreport collected data from 137 brands and 3,203 products, recording the price of each product and then dividing it by the milligrams of CBD present in the product. From there, the website looked at the total average for each brand in USD per mg of CBD and created a 3-category price index to compare brands.
Findings
The research uncovered a whopping 4,718% price difference between the cheapest and most expensive CBD brands in the same category. The report also found that overall CBD prices decreased from last year by 11.25%. The cheapest CBD product family is the isolate category. The most expensive CBD product category is creams and topicals. CBD topicals and creams have gone down in price more than any other category, decreasing by 25% from 2020 to 2021.
“We were surprised by how different the prices are between brands when selling the same products. It is also interesting to see that expansive brands aren't necessarily better and some high-quality brands offer very good prices,” Shafir told NutraIngredients-USA.
Based on their findings, Industrial Hemp Farms ranked as the cheapest brand across four different categories and Kushly ranked as the most expensive brand in total, with Her Highness CBD ranking as the most expensive across two product categories.
“We saw a 17% decrease in CBD prices in 2020 compared to 2019 and another 11% decrease on average this year. We believe the market is becoming more competitive and CBD products are becoming more affordable as a result,” added Shafir.
Legal pathway for CBD supplements
Another indication of the popularity and acceptance of CBD is a new bill that was recently put out called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. The bill mostly seeks to decriminalize marijuana, but it also includes language on CBD.
According to a 29-page summary of the bill, “This section would amend the definition of dietary supplement to remove the prohibition on marketing CBD as a dietary supplement.”
The bill also mandates that an upper safe level of daily CBD exposure be established, and also states that, “Certain dietary supplements would be required to submit New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notifications to FDA. Additionally, the section would clarify that FDA would have the ability to require safety-related labeling or packaging requirements if needed and give FDA the ability to take enforcement action against any noncompliant CBD-containing products that is inappropriately labeled as a dietary supplement.”
