Hemp bechmarks, indices, assessed prices, and reference prices: What are they and why do they matter?
Grain and pulses prices remained flat over the past two weeks with maize within the 3,000 Ksh/90kg range as imports from Uganda and Tanzania arrived in markets. The NCPB is selling stores to millers at 2,700 Ksh/90 Kgs bag while procuring maize from the current harvesting season.
If you had told Julie Lerner eight years ago that the commodity trading platform PanXchange, which she was building with sugar in mind, would grow to support the trading of frac sand, East African grains and hemp, she would have said you are nuts.Hemp was the most recent addition to the platform after the full legalization of the crop last year with the passage of the Farm Bill. In this video, Lerner, CEO of PanXchange, talks about launching the first benchmark pricing for hemp and the state of the nascent world that is physical hemp trading. It’s a different beast from the traditional commodity landscape.
The spot biomass market throughout August has been transacting in the range of $2.73 to $4.50 per percentage point of CBD content (/point) as supply from the 2018 crop year is sporadic and early season crops are being harvested. The trend of biomass selling near the lower end of the range has continued from July, as those who are holding product from the 2018 have incentive to sell before large quantities of product enter the market from the 2019 crop year. Instances of this trend have increased in the last few days, depicting the eagerness to move product and exit positions.
Trade wars have crushed US grain sales. Tobacco is in terminal decline. However, for farmers in Kentucky the future may lie in a crop of the past: hemp. The fibrous plant once prized for rope and sailcloth is poised for a second life as a source of cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance added to everything from hamburgers to dog treats, which enthusiasts claim has therapeutic qualities.
We often get asked, “What’s the price of CBD per pound?”
And the answer is: That depends on a lot!
Pulses and Maize prices have stabilized in the last weeks due to the onset of harvesting of the pulses and imports of maize from Tanzania and Uganda respectively. This has also been bolstered by the release of more maize from the Strategic Food Reserve. While they currently stabilized, there could be pressure to break below ksh 3,000 in the next week or two.
Maize prices are set to ease after the beginning of harvest in parts of South Rift and western Kenya and with the national strategic food reserve set to release additional maize to the millers. In additional, animal feeds millers have been given permission to import 2.5 Million tonnes of yellow maize, a key ingredient in animal feed. This should ease competition for the white maize among maize flour millers.
The PanXchange Industrial Hemp trading platform is officially going live on August 1st!
PanXchange will be in attendance at the USA CBD Expo at the Miami Beach Convention Center (August 2nd – August 4th). Not only is the CEO of PanXchange, Julie Lerner, moderating a panel, but PanXchange will be at booth #616 throughout the event. If you are attending the conference or local to the area, we encourage everyone to stop by!
After the duty free maize import period was cancelled by the agriculture minister, the price jumped sharply, by an average of Kshs 200 per 90kg bag for the farmers who still have inventory to sell.
This year’s harvest will begin next month, and most farmers are anticipating a good price despite a bumper harvest, as the country will need to refill depleted reserves.
This would depend on the legal status of Ugandan and Tanzanian imports, however, as their harvests are expected to come just before Kenya’s, and a surge in imports could depress prices.