Leafreport recently released its pricing report, which included data from more than 3,000 CBD products sold by more than 100 industry-leading brands. The CBD industry's peer-reviewed watchdog website revealed an astounding 11,142% price difference between the cheapest and most expensive topicals.
"We found it interesting that there are so many expensive products on the market that simply aren't worth what they're charging," said Gal Shapira, Product Manager at Leafreport, who added that this report was meant to serve as a follow-up to their April 2021 price report.
Design
Every six months Leafreport analyzes the CBD market by recording the price of each product and dividing it by the milligrams of CBD present in the product to a standardized pricing reference point (i.e. the price in USD per milligram of CBD).
From there the watchdog analyzes the average for each brand and develops a price index to easily compare brands.
Key points of comparison
- Overall CBD prices have decreased, from $0.122 per milligram of CBD to $0.12—a -1.96% decrease since April.
- CBD isolate is the cheapest, which costs 19% less on average compared with April 2021.
- The most expensive CBD brand is Kushly, which was also the most expensive brand in April 2021.
- The most affordable products in the industry overall continue to be from Industrial Hemp Farms.
- There is a 3,561% gap between the most expensive and least expensive products across the CBD industry, down slightly from 3682% in April.
- Capsule prices have jumped the most since April, increasing by 2.55%.
- The most significant price difference is in the creams and topicals category, which has a 11,142% price gap between the most expensive and the cheapest products. In April 2021, the difference was 4,718%, — a 6,242% jump.
- Leafreport added an edibles category and found a 5,100% price difference between the cheapest and most expensive products.
Shapira told NutraIngredients-USA that the findings of the report were a bit shocking. “We expected that there would be a slight pricing increase in some of the categories, but the 6,242% price change in the topical and creams category was a surprise.”
Accessibility
Shapira told us that she believes the growth in the market likely contributed to the overall drop in CBD prices. The widespread product availability likely contributed to the decrease in price due to consumers increased ability to purchase products more readily.
As for the huge gap between the least and most expensive brands, she pointed to manufacturing.
“We found that products that tended to veer on the costly side typically used high-quality raw materials, sought out independent practices, and other types of quality practices. Taking these additional measures not only take time but resources, and likely are attributed to the higher price.”
Looking ahead, Shapira said that as interest increases and more brands begin to enter the market, the need for higher quality products will become more prevalent. “Consumers will likely become more accustomed to paying more for higher quality, tested products. Currently, many companies do not take the additional steps to make sure that their products are offering true therapeutic benefits and are indeed safe. In the future, we could see these brands either failing in the market or changing their manufacturing processes,” she said.
Tools
To help consumers make more informed purchasing decisions, Leafreport also debuted a pricing calculator that allows users to measure the value of their CBD products based on CBD content and product price.
The website also has dosage, labs results and potency calculators.
"Leafreport's mission is to help promote transparency across the CBD industry and educate consumers so they can access products that are safe and offer the contents being advertised. We publish reports like this to shed light on whether consumers are truly getting what they believe they're paying for. It is our hope that this report helps consumers make better-informed decisions when looking to purchase CBD products,” said Shapira.
