According to the Brightfield Group, the European market for CBD is set to grow 400 percent over the next few years. To make sure his company takes advantage of this opportunity, StillCanna Inc. (CSE:STIL) (OTCPK:SCNNF) founder Marc Crimeni is relocating to Europe to dedicate himself to making bulk CBD sales there.
CEO Jason Dussault says he applauds Crimeni's dedication to the task and notes the importance of a move like this.
“We are a global company operating in multiple time zones,” Dussault said in a press release. “Marc has spent the majority of his career in global sales and marketing having done business in over 60 countries. His sales and marketing knowledge across a myriad of products over the past 4 decades is instrumental in StillCanna achieving its corporate milestones."
Europe is a Market Unlike Any Other
As Dussault recently told RichTV Live, StillCanna is focused on CBD in Europe because of the unique opportunities that the market provides. The EU has 28 countries with open borders, through which StillCanna can freely move its hemp and hemp-derived products. Plus, as noted above, CBD in Europe is about to become a highly lucrative industry. By the end of this year, it is expected to be worth $416 million, and that number is projected to be as high as $1.7 billion by 2023. This is partly because Europeans are gradually becoming more aware of the wide range of CBD-products that companies like StillCanna are offering.
Though CBD products in Europe are currently limited to items for external use, such as topical oils for skincare, that might not be the case for much longer. As Bloomberg notes, The European Food Safety Agency has proposed altering EU legislation to allow ingestible CBD products to be bought and sold legally on the continent. If this occurs, it could cause the market to exceed the already considerable expectations that analysts have.
Dussault also noted in his interview that, with its recent acquisition of Polish legacy hemp producer Olimax, StillCanna is working with farmers who have a lot more experience with the hemp plant, giving them first mover advantage over companies that are just getting to work in the fields now. This equates to a minimum 18-month head start.
StillCanna's Polish Facility is Sowing the Future of Cannabis
When it purchased Olimax, StillCanna retained the company's founders, transitioning them to roles as VP Operations Poland. One of those founders, Zofia Vahlberg, echoes Dussault's comments about farmer experience. She and her family have been growing hemp, and will continue to grow hemp, for generations.
"It's a very familial business and a very familial continuation of a tradition," she says. "We take care of hemp and so do our children."
Vahlberg adds that, with StillCanna at their backs, the goal is to produce 16 tons of CBD by the end of the year and to improve upon that figure in 2020. Considering that she and Olimax's other founder Krystyna Bojeck share a combined 40 years of experience in hemp products, this goal will likely come to fruition.
As StillCanna readies the harvest on its 3,750 acres of Polish farmland, the company is poised to become one of the top producers of CBD in Europe. It is already one of only three companies there that have its own propriety hemp seed, which allows it to extract CBD at a lower cost than the industry standard.
In the press release announcing his relocation, Crimeni said that "bulk CBD has been forecast to be the largest in the world. Capitalizing on this opportunity is difficult when faced with an 8 to 10 hour time difference. In founding the Company it was important to me to secure the right team members in management, agriculture, harvesting and extraction so I could concentrate on my core skills in international sales, today we have reached that milestone."
Crimeni adds that he looks forward to sharing a time zone with StillCanna's facilities and future customers in Europe, and will be working towards meeting the company's goals for revenue.
Featured Image: Canva
