Our team has been working with the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (FDAC) to understand how they are handling hemp-derived CBD at the retail level. On January 1, 2020 new regulations became effective allowing the FDAC Division of Food Safety to issue food permits for the manufacturing, processing, packing, holding, preparing or selling of food consisting of or containing hemp extract and CBD at wholesale or retail.

According to the regulator, retail hemp food establishments are food establishments that prepare and/or sell prepackaged food consisting of or containing hemp extract, which includes CBD or other cannabinoids, to the end consumer.

Wholesale hemp food establishments are food establishments that manufacture, process, pack, hold or prepare food consisting of or containing hemp extract, which includes CBD or other cannabinoids, and sell that product to other businesses.

Why Does This Matter?

This rollout seems a lot like the CBD licensure scheme in Louisiana last year as it appears to cover many of the same types of businesses. The table below is our annotated version of the 32 different categories of establishments that Florida tracks:

It seems notable that so few permits were given for online sales and the companies don’t seem to be household names:

• Imagine Holdings LLC
• USBEE GROUP LLC
• Neon Labs
• EGREGORA NATURALS LLC
• RUCK UP CBD
• Advanced Modern Medicine
• Crazy Eye Brands
• Heavens Organics

The largest license holders are Publix and Circle K:

Digging into key channels, we see a concentration around the big names highlighted above:

• Publix has 54% of the Supermarket channel with Walmart at 21% and Winn Dixie at 9 %
• Circle K has 32% of the Convenience Store channel with Tom Thumb a distance second at 5%

In terms of locations it is likely that this distribution matches populations centers and business concentrations well known to observers of the Florida retail landscape.

What Does This Portend for CBD Nationwide?

It appears that Florida tried to make this easy on license holders by not requiring these food establishments to need an additional permit from the Division of Food Safety. However, the establishment should contact the division and provide notification of this change in status.

Between Louisiana and Florida there are over 6,300 wholesale and retail permits. Other states are considering licensing this activity and based on the approach in these two states CBD will mirror the retail landscape in each particular state.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabiz Media License Database yourself to dive further into this data.

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