Monetize plant breeding, improve existing products, and continue to build organizational resilience with new product rollouts and a retail concept
Funded on 11/16/2020
East Fork has migrated its full 2020 fundraising campaign onto Steward due to the success of its $50,000 pilot raise on the platform in July.
While cannabis prohibition has ended in Oregon, traditional banking and financing options remain difficult to access, even for established organizations with strong cash flow and credit history, like East Fork.
In the absence of conventional loans and lines of credit available to most businesses, East Fork has grown through the support of friends and family via simple, amortized loans with attractive interest rates and terms.
While the global COVID-19 pandemic has created changes and uncertainty, the demand for East Fork's superior therapeutic-grade plant products has continued to strengthen. Commonly used in managing anxiety, pain, sleep, and numerous medical conditions, millions of people rely upon CBD-rich organic hemp and cannabis products. By backing East Fork, investors choose to proactively foster a positive future for regenerative agriculture and organic plant medicine as it continues to demonstrate the industry's leading operating standards.
This loan is associated only with East Fork Cultivars' hemp operations. The repayments of this loan will be achieved using revenue generated by those operations.
One of East Fork’s most unique assets is its diverse library of low-THC cannabis genetics. East Fork has been carefully developing new lines of chemically complex cannabis for years, and recently signed its first licensing agreement, a commercial acknowledgement of the value of this intellectual property. The company is ready to further commercialize this work, but getting new plant varieties to market ethically and successfully will require additional investment.
One of the primary uses of funds in this raise will be to build East Fork's feminized hemp seed production capacity in anticipation of launching a commercial seed line for farmers in 2021. To do so, East Fork will invest in additional in-house testing equipment, staff, further consultation with geneticists and other experts, and physical expansion of seed multiplication facilities. There is overwhelming demand for distinct hemp seed and East Fork has IP the market is continually asking for.
Since East Fork's founding it has consistently added new products and services to help reach new customers and channels and better fulfill its mission. With the help of its closest vendors and manufacturing partners, East Fork has developed popular lines of both ready-to-consume and ingredient products. In order to stay competitive, East Fork will use some of the funds from this raise to improve its existing product lines and invest further in programs that are working well, including:
East Fork has remained profitable, relevant, and on a strong growth trajectory by constantly evolving. It has two new project areas on tap for 2020, both of which will use funds from this raise to help bring to market:
Flagship retail: East Fork has purchased a mixed-use building in Portland’s up-and-coming Foster-Powell neighborhood, and will be moving its Portland office and warehouse into the freshly renovated space in Fall 2020. The building includes a small-format, highly visible retail space, which will serve as East Fork’s flagship retail concept, Hemp Bar.
Product launches: Building on the success of its current offerings, East Fork is on track to roll out a full line of East Fork-branded hemp products including additional consumer-packaged goods. Each new product will fill a gap in existing markets or create new categories that lean on East Fork’s unique set of values and core competencies.
Get project announcements, farmer introductions, company updates, and more by subscribing to the Steward newsletter. Join our growing community of people who are making regenerative agriculture the foundation of our future.
Join a growing community of sustainably-minded lenders reaping the rewards from responsible farming