New York To Host Debut Edition of Cannabis Auction Exchange

The legal cannabis industry is still taking shape and evolving. In many ways, the industry is figuring itself out as it goes. And that leaves the door open for people to enter the space and do all sorts of creative or unexpected things.

One of the most recent examples of this is a cannabis auction taking place this weekend in New York City. The event, billed as The Cannabis Auction Exchange, will focus exclusively on selling CBD strains and products.

A Groundbreaking Cannabis Event

The CBD-oriented event will take place December 7 at the Aloft Hotel at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Prior to the event, people interested in attending and bidding on products can register online at the auction’s official website.

Attendees can also register at the door, beginning at 8:00 a.m. The auction is scheduled to begin around 10:00 a.m. and organizers expect it to go until roughly 5:00 p.m.

The auction will bring together hemp farmers from around the country and put them in front of potential buyers. Auction organizers expect to see massive quantities of product being sold at the event.

Estimates on what types and amounts of product will be available include:

• Nearly 20,000 pounds of CBD flower.
• 100,000-pound blocks of CBD biomass for use in making CBD extracts.
• CBD isolates sold by the kilogram.
• CBD distillates sold by the liter.
• And vast amounts of other CBD products such as pre-rolled CBD joints, CBD oils, and much more.

Event organizers are promoting the event as a groundbreaking new idea in the cannabis space. Specifically, the auction format opens the door to all sorts of involvement and participation.

For example, CBD businesses or manufacturers have the chance to meet, purchase from, and potentially partner with hemp farmers.

And on the other end of the spectrum, private consumers have a shot at scoring large amounts of CBD products for prices far below regular retail.

Notably, The Cannabis Auction Exchange is the first-ever auction of its kind in New York state. And at the national level, it’s only the third such auction—potentially on pace to become the biggest one yet.

“This is the first auction like this in New York. I suspect, based on the responses we’ve been seeing so far, that the place is going to be crowded,” Stanley Wolfson, Director of The Cannabis Auction Exchange, told High Times.

He continued: “This will be the third auction to date in the country. But New York is a totally different market and we have a population density that dwarfs [the other cannabis auctions] so you have a much larger market, a much more active market.”

Helping Hemp Farmers Find New Markets

As far as organizers are concerned, the primary function of the auction is to serve hemp farmers. So far, the event has drawn farmers from around the country, including Oregon, California, Kentucky, Vermont, New York, and more.

Hemp cultivation is at an interesting juncture. Last year’s federal Farm Bill removed hemp—defined as containing less than 0.3% THC—from the federal list of banned substances.

In practice, this essentially made hemp legal. And as far as most people are concerned, that includes hemp-derived products, most notably, CBD.

However, even as hemp and CBD continue to see explosive growth, many hemp farmers are struggling to move their products onto the market. That’s where The Cannabis Auction Exchange comes in.

“In our exploration of the industry, we found that farmers are having a really tough time monetizing their crops,” Wolfson told High Times. “Hemp farmers are very good at growing their crop, but many struggle with the marketing and monetization. This auction acts as a tool for monetizing their crops.”