Hemp Expo (Melbourne), page-111

Hey guys, as mentioned before I'm posting my personal opinion of the expo/MCL.
It was a pretty miserable day, and I along with @Aqualink arrived at about 11:30am and we spent about an hour and 20 at the expo all up.

The attendance to the event was a tad weak, but this can be put down to the fact of weather and that this is the first Hemp expo in Melbourne. For the most part the people who attended the expo were Hemp/marijuana enthusiasts, which is a good thing, however for this industry to take off, there needs to be better marketing. The issue I had with the enthusiasts and some of the booths were that they can be very preachy, and its somewhat off putting. I enjoy passion but not rhetoric. Secondly, for my liking there was too much of the novelty aspect of Marijuana/Hemp with many booths opting for the gimmick side, i.e 'healTHCcare' printed on t-shirts. I personally wouldn't wear these shirts, and I don't know if they would really appeal to anyone outside the current niche that's already attending.

For food products, I saw very few really focusing on the food aspect which was slightly disappointing, would have liked to enjoy tasting more food products then just seeds. The seeds themselves have a nutty, cashew taste to them, which when mixed into breakfast foods or light daily snacks could be quite nice. The hemp milk from Vitahemp was decent, and in my opinion a much better alternative to soy milk. The proteins should be a decent seller with the benefits of hemp based protein powder far outweighing Whey protein, especially when it comes to bloating and digestion. Another reason I like the idea of the consumable product is that it has a finite life, which means theres more of an ability to create consistent revenue. One of the main issues that kept cropping up (no pun intended) was that hemp is too durable, and that businesses go under because the only reason you'd need to buy another shirt is to get a different colour, the shirt itself lasts for decades. so in my opinion the protein powder, the milk and the soaps will be the best products revenue wise in this industry.

AK knows his products and knows the industry very well, so i'm confident in having him involved. He comes across as somewhat shy, but genuinely passionate. As Blazw mentioned before, the Hemp side of the industry seems to be bigger then the MM side, especially in the establishment phase. Talking to Andrew, his wife and daughter, they seemed shocked/overwhelmed by the recent interest but highly positive. As I mentioned in my previous post, MCL appeared to be the more sophisticated booth at the expo, the packaging and branding could do with a bit of work, but it wasn't the preachy novelty approach that many competitors took which overall makes a much more marketable product. Andrew was also not at liberty to discuss the MCL IPO, but they were confident in their ability to list in 2018. Andrew's daughter mentioned that the Vitahemp website will be up and running this week, with products ready for sale.

My favourite aspect of the hemp industry is the construction aspect of it, and I think they expo was a little light on that side. I spoke to the owners of these booths and they seemed genuinely passionate about the product. Joe D'Alo from the hemp building company was able to offer a deep insight in the benefits of hemp as a construction material. Hemp is great for insulation and a fascinating thing I learnt was that the lime that is mixed in with the hemp to help bind the material is absorbed into the hemp and overtime actually begins to turn back into limestone. This means that the product only gets stronger with age. Why I think this is beneficial is that for the housing market, hemp can be a viable alternative to current construction materials. The current, Porter Davis, Metricon mass housing tends to only have a life span of 25 years to align with mortgages, after the 25 years the houses require massive repairs or potentially entire re builds. Similarly these are poorly insulated and often require mass air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. It isn't really cost effective. Given that a 200mm wall of hemp has an R-value of 3, this product could help bring down household costs, as well as create genuine value to your home.

that just about sums it up, it's still new, but I think this could be a truly big industry and I'm looking forward to the next year to see where this all goes.

GLTAH and remember to always DYOR!