For those that enjoy the relief that CBD oil can provide, the wide variety of different retailer brands can make it a little difficult to to know which one(s) you should buy. Flavors and potency is one factor, but one of the most problematic is figuring out the average CBD oil cost.
According to health.com, CBD oil cost can vary greatly from retailer to retailer, and even from manufacturer to manufacturer. There are several reasons why CBD oil cost seems to fluctuate so much between brands, and we’re going to try to help explain why in this article.
Legality
At this time, when it comes to legality in the USA, CBD is in a peculiar position. While it’s true that the use of CBD oil is entirely legal in every state, there’s a few caveats to this status. Mainly, the fact that different states have different limits on the amount of THC the CBD oil product is allowed to contain.
Due to the entourage effect, small amounts of THC (not enough to get you high) THC can assist the rest of the cannabinoids work in conjunction better and therefore is included in some CBD oil brands. If a particular brand has to implement additional processes in order to be in compliance in every state they wish to sell to, it can drastically affect the CBD oil cost. To ensure that their product doesn’t contain any THC whatsoever, the manufacturer has implement a process known as winterization.
In other words, it costs a lot to make sure their product conforms to local laws.
Farming
Another factor that affects CBD oil cost is the expense of farming hemp. While the federal level has recently classified hemp as a legal plant, there are still enormous hurdles that farmers have to work with. When it comes to actual harvesting and extraction, there are numerous things that raise the price.
Compared to other crops, hemp requires unique harvesting mechanisms, which makes it difficult to repurpose other farming equipment for use with it.
It can cost between $300 and $600 per acre to harvest of hemp and once that has been completed, they still have to deal with a lengthy and expensive extraction process. Because of these factors, many hemp farmers simply sell their hemp directly to CBD manufacturers, which means there’s a middleman that of course wants to make a profit from their hard work and once again, affects the CBD oil cost.
The extraction and filtering processes are also time consuming and rather costly, as well as the extensive, rigorous testing that the products undergo. Once the product reaches the point of sell, of course the retailer has to make a profit.
CBD oil cost is also dependent on shipping costs if ordering by mail. Furthermore, as mentioned above, various CBD oil brands offer different products that come in different intensities and concentration of CBD, which results in a wide spectrum of pricing. That means that in order to find the best option for CBD oil cost, you need to research and understand precisely what you’re buying.