Crystal, a company specialized in the production and sale of derivatives
of hemp for cosmetic, food and personal wellness use begins
take shape in the thinking of brothers Angelo and Raffaele Desiante in 2014. Sons of a historic family of farmers in Puglia, they seek an innovative way to build their future, maintaining a connection with the family business. They imagine something different that can free them from the routine of the classical cultures of their homeland. Thus, they convince the parents to entrust them with free plots to be plowed and plowed to plant some hemp varieties. But finally, just before sowing, the father,
impressed by the nature of the children’s choice, he backs off and confesses that in those
land, he planted chickpeas.
The brothers’ disappointment is great. Angelo studies economics and finance at the Bocconi University in Milan and Raffaele has a strong entrepreneurial intuition that leads him to open a shop specializing in the sale of cultivation equipment and products derived from hemp. The two developed a strong scientific knowledge of the potential that the plant allows to develop. Still, that word, cannabis, scares his familiar entourage. But on December 2, 2016 with law 242 things change. In Italy, the cultivation of hemp becomes completely legal if it is destined for a series of activities: food, cosmetics, for the production of fibers, oils, fuels, crafts, for the practice of green manure fertilizers, for the creation of semi-finished products for bioengineering and green construction, for phytoremediation and land reclamation, for horticulture.
Angelo and Raffele founded Crystal in 2018, shifting the focus from psychotropic effects to the positive and well-being effects that can be derived from using and processing sativa hemp with a focus on Cbd, cannabidiol, a molecule discovered in 1940 that is not addictive and has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant and relaxing effects.
Crystal is now cultivating 10,000 square meters of land in Cornate d’Adda, in the province of Monza and Brianza, where it has taken on an activity that is divided between open fields and 4,000 square meters of greenhouses. In 2020, turnover exploded, with a growth of 1,400% compared to 2019. And in 2021 another 54%, reaching 2 million euros in turnover. The commercialization of Crystal Weed brand products occurs mainly through e-commerce (www.crystalweed.it) which registers more than 1,000 contacts per day. The personal hygiene and food lines are on sale at www.crystalfarm.it. And for 2022 it expects an even greater growth in turnover of 22% reaching a turnover of 2.5 million. While growth has slowed this year, we will begin to reap the rewards of our strategic investments made over the past 12 months and still ongoing as of 2023. We are confident that we will be able to resume growth at an even faster pace in the coming years. . In 2021 our main market was Italian. Despite this, we export products to European Union markets for 67% of our turnover. The markets in which we are most present are Poland, France and Germany ยป.
A sector valued at around 24 billion dollars with an epicenter in Canada and the United States. But the estimate is for an annual growth of 25.6%, up to a value of 123.2 billion dollars in 2027. The most important thing is that the market axis shifts to Europe. In Italy, the most reliable assessments are of a turnover of 150 million euros with 6 million regular consumers. In Italy, moreover, there are more than 1,500 micro-enterprises and ten thousand employees in this sector.