Ask Our Experts: Finding Wholesale Customers for Hemp Flower
Q: How might I best identify potential wholesale customers for hemp flower?
A: Though consumer demand for CBD keeps growing, it seems increasingly difficult for hemp producers to line up potential buyers. The disconnect comes through a combination of factors, including a shortage of hemp processors, regulatory indecision about CBD, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.
Optimally, farmers should contract their buyers before planting. Too many hemp producers have taken losses by diving headlong into the hemp industry without performing due diligence.
Given the nascent nature of hemp’s legal reintroduction, the most effective harvest-to-market strategies likely will boil down to good networking, attending industry events, and engagement with industry associations.
Online market exchanges also offer venues for selling crops: some include RAW Hemp Marketplace, Cannamerx, and PanXchange.
Research is recommended before selecting an exchange. For example, cultivators might consider whether the exchange provides dispute mediation, or holds bad actors accountable.
Hemp farmers face enough challenges through unknowns including unpredictable weather, spikes in hemp production, a lack of processors, and an incomplete supply chain. The more that guesses can be replaced by answers, the better one’s odds for enjoying success.
