Chinese Cannabis Market Overview

China is the world's major cannabis planting area, accounting for about half of the world's total area. According to the statistics of the World Intellectual Property Organization, 306 of the 606 patents involving cannabis in the world are from Chinese companies and individuals. Two of China’s 34 regions are leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, which has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond.

According to incomplete statistics, at least 190 companies in China include “industrial cannabis” in their business scope. There are more than 50 enterprises with industrial cannabis planting licenses, but only 5 of them have been given a Yunnan Industrial Cannabis Leaf Processing License.

In the domestic market, China's Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces have opened up the cultivation and processing of cannabis. Yunnan Province is the only province that has specified the requirements for industrial cannabis cultivation and processing and is also the earliest province for the development of the industrial cannabis industry. In addition, Jilin Province is expected to become the third province in China to open industrial cannabis cultivation and processing.

In China industrial cannabis is not yet legal for medical applications and consequently, the market has not yet been developed, resulting in the low comprehensive utilization of industrial cannabis. With the deepening of research in the field of cannabis, the market space for extracts represented by CBD is increasing. At the same time, the application of CBD in food, cosmetics, and health products will continue to expand. In the future, the CBD will become the focus of the development of the cannabis industry.