Talk to me about infusion where you extract a whole plant, strain-specific product directly into carrier oils. No solvents = lower costs, and this process excels with quality input. Infused infused oils can hit high potencies (10% with MCT) and are ready for packaging/formulation into soft gels, tablets, salves, gummies, nanoemulsions, and edibles–everything but vapes, really.
My company sells single-operator equipment that infuses oils with up to 40 lbs of biomass per day. We also do test and production batches for interested parties – for example I’m finishing up a 3-week run of 320 lbs of hemp that is going to turn into about 30 gallons of MCT infused to 5% cbd.
The wholesale market for infused oils is arguably more nebulous than that for wholesale cannabinoid (cbd distillate, isolate) market but consider that we will sell those 30 gallons for nearly $30k, which our retail client white labels for nearly five times that cost (and even higher for retail). So I think there is an opportunity for the grower that wants to vertically integrate their operation of turning small-batch, high quality cannabis into retail products.
I have focused on optimizing the infusion and decarboxylation processes the past couple years but now am turning towards formulation. I received a proof-of-concept batch last week confirming infused oils can be nanoemulsified into H2O soluble products from Industrial Sonomechanics and I’m optimistic about the contacts I am pursuing for gummy & tablet formulation too.