The CBD oil market is already a $1 billion industry and shows no signs of slowing down. A new analysis by Cowen & Co. suggests the CBD oil market could be a $16 billion business in the United States as soon as 2025.
Fortune reported that the data from Cowen & Co.’s consumer survey of 2,500 adults showed that 6.9% of respondents used CBD as a supplement. They “conservatively” estimated CBD use growing to 10% in the next six years, which would total 25 million consumers. Analyst Vivien Azer said the initial findings were surprising and that the total number of current CBD users “was much higher than we would have suspected.”
The survey found that tinctures are the most popular CBD products (44%), followed by topical (26%), capsules (22%) and beverages (19%). The highest CBD use in the survey was among consumers ages 18 to 34 (9%), followed by those in the 45-55 age bracket (6.4%) and those over age 55 (3.7%).
It’s important to note the above survey also includes CBD products that contain high levels of THC. A report released last December in New Frontier Data’s Hemp Business Journal assessed the hemp CBD marketplace specifically and concluded that it will triple in four years, from $390 million in 2018 to $1.3 billion by 2022.
Much of this boom has to do with President Trump’s passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from federal prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Hemp was previously listed as a Schedule I substance, meaning it had a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical benefits.
Banks can now provide accounts and financial products to hemp companies. This in turn will allow credit card processors to process hemp-derived CBD product accounts both in mass-market retailers and online.
If that doesn’t get you excited about the future of CBD, a report released last September by the Brightfield Group suggested that the hemp-derived CBD industry might even surpass the cannabis industry in sales by 2022.