Upper Street Marketing’s First Hemp Harvest On Track
San Diego, CA, Sept. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Upper Street Marketing Inc. (OTC Markets: symbol UPPR) and its agricultural partners have been monitoring their first hemp crop throughout the summer and are now within weeks of processing the biomass into high-grade cannabidiol (CBD) isolates and distillates.
Recent photographs of plants growing on the 330 acres UPPR has cultivated in Center, Colorado are available at the company’s website () and attest to the progress of the crop toward harvest and extraction in late September or early October. An additional 900-acre cultivation owned and operated by partners has reached a similarly advanced stage.
“Hemp plants generally require 12-16 weeks before the flowering plants develop CBD-rich concentrations,” said UPPR Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Earle. “Our seeds were in the ground in early June.”
While the Colorado Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service has yet to track hemp as a separate crop, agronomists have compared the ideal soil for the plant to the well-aerated loam that best supports corn. On that basis, the NASS currently rates conditions across 80% of the state “good to excellent,” well above the five-year average evaluation of 69%.
Once the crop is harvested, UPPR will begin extracting CBD from the biomass in 4Q 2019 or early Q1, 2020 in the Company’s 100,000 square-foot facility near its Colorado acreage. Additionally, UPPR leases a 12,000 square-foot laboratory in San Diego, California, that will also further process high-grade CBD isolates and distillates for sales.
Previously disclosed yield projections suggest that the overall production profile should translate to approximately 75,000 kilograms of high-quality CBD. The company has retained FDA-registered contract pharmaceutical manufacturer, PrimaPharma Inc., () to ensure that all products meet regulatory and commercial FDA cGMP standards.
Most recently, UPPR has partnered with ICC Group Northwest Inc. () to build out the manufacturing and extraction needed for UPPR CBD production needs.
As the demand for the newly legalized, non-psychoactive CBD products expands, UPPR is building to the estimated $25 billion annual market by 2024. Fortune magazine and other publications have contemplated a 100X surge in CBD consumption between now and 2023. UPPR estimates current markets expand from 75,000 kg of isolate/distillate to as much as 3.5 million kg.
UPPR research indicates that approximately 55,000 acres of hemp were harvested in 2018 across North America, enough to satisfy only 12% of retail demand. On that basis, cultivation will need to expand to over 250,000 acres simply to meet projected 2020 consumption.
Recent wholesale pricing on CBD isolates is running above $3,000 per pound ($7,000 per kilogram) and many organic hemp farmers target yields of 15% CBD or higher. UPPR and its partners are now weeks from harvesting our crops. “We’ve heard plenty of anecdotal complaints about pricing of CBD products when retailers can stock them at all,” notes CEO Joseph Earle. “Moving our first crop from the field to the processing plant will help ease that imbalance and satisfy the market, while validating our seed-to-store FDA cGMP business plan.”
For Further Information Contact:
Upper Street Marketing Inc.
Phone: (844) 535-UPPR (8777)
About Upper Street Marketing and CBD
An estimated 7% of Americans are currently consuming CBD products, with that population conservatively expanding 30% (to 45 million adults) by 2025. Now fully legal as a non-psychoactive product of industrial hemp, CBD has been promoted as an effective treatment for everything from arthritis to insomnia. To date, the only FDA-approved uses are for two rare forms of childhood epilepsy. With one of the only integrated “seed to consumer” platforms for participating in all phases of the industry from crop to value-added commercial and clinical product development, UPPR intends to be a leader in FDA cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practice) capabilities in the hemp and CBD marketplace.
Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about the Company's business, based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and probably will, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such statements could be affected by risks and uncertainties related to: (i) our ability to execute the Company's business plans with the uncertainty of agricultural crops (ii) product demand, market, and customer acceptance of the Company's products, (iii) the Company's ability to obtain financing to expand our operations, (iv) the Company's ability to attract qualified sales representatives, (v) competition, pricing and development difficulties, (vi) the Company's ability to conduct the business if there are changes in laws, regulations, or government policies related to the Company's products, (vii) the Company's ability to conduct operations if it faces product recalls, and (viii) general industry and market conditions and growth rates and general economic conditions. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.
