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The value of California’s legal drug crop fell 39.7% last year while tonnage rose 12%, another indication of how hard the licensed industry is struggling to survive the competition from unfair trade and regulatory challenges, says the new report.
The wholesale value of adult-use marijuana from licensed Golden State growers was $1 billion last year, down from $1.66 billion in 2021, according to a cannabis harvest report released Tuesday. by Leafly. According to Seattle’s online market and legal weed information service, the number of legal crops in the state was 577 metric tons, up from 517 a year earlier, but the number of plantation licenses fell by nearly 9% to 6,881.
Leafly Editor-in-Chief David Downs discussed the report at a local drug industry roundtable Thursday at the Sonoma Valley home of the now-naturalist and farmer. and Mike Benziger. Downs saw a rapid increase in legal profits across the country and a strong legal profession.
“It’s a tumultuous time, we’re in — the previous phase of the ban has fallen, and the next one will rise,” Downs said.
After legalizing medical marijuana in the mid-1990s, California voters legalized adult recreational use in 2016. Now, 15 states allow commercial sale. Virginia voters last year favored personal use but not commercial sales. Four more states – Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota – have their November elections.
“This is a historic time for growth and culture and industry,” Downs said.
By 2020, Leafly estimates California’s wholesale revenue for legal marijuana will rank sixth in the state, comparing Leafly’s data with that from the US Department of Agriculture. It’s behind almonds ($5.25 billion), table and wine grapes ($4.49 billion), lettuce ($3.07 billion), pistachios ($2.62 billion) and strawberries ($2.21 billion), but ahead of traditional flowers ($967 million) ) and walnut ($948). million).
Yet the following year, legal weed in the state has dropped to eighth place among crops, tied with rice ($1 billion).
Nationally, legal growers last year sold 2,834 metric tons for $5.03 billion under 13,297 licenses, up 24.4% in weight from 2020, down 18.5% in value and nearly 250 licenses . The 2021 product value is number 6 after cotton ($7.5 billion).
But US residents smoked or consumed 15,000 tons of weed last year, highlighting the gap between junk food products and licensed ones.
“We’re about a fifth of the way there,” Downs said.
Leafly has been compiling and analyzing reports on legal drug product yields and valuations for the past two years with the help of Whitney Economics. The United States Department of Agriculture does not track cannabis products because cannabis is still considered an illegal drug. The goal behind Leafly’s reports is to show licensed growers as legitimate growers.
And for growers in the main cannabis-growing region of California’s Emerald Triangle (Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties), the goal came to be celebrated by the people on Tuesday, when the Humboldt Board of Supervisors approved County is paid for two years from the local tax.
“And the most heartwarming thing is that not only did we win the suspension of Measure S in Humboldt County, but we were called farmers and farmers,” said Craig Johnson of Alpenglow Farms at the round table discussion.
Compared to last year’s billion dollar California cannabis crop, the value of last year’s wine grape harvest was $3.2 billion for the state and $1.2 billion for the high-value North region (estimated by USDA mostly Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties. ).
The certification of California recreation, the right grass farmers in the North region are known for the top wines and the money drive trying to define their products as “work,” which validating the payments. Some farmers insisted that the size of the operation be the dividing line: under 1 acre, up to 10,000 square feet of growing space.
“One of the things that to me is ‘art’ is that you celebrate differences,” Benziger said. “Because for me, if it’s always the same, then you violate the definition of wealth. Every year as farmers we know that there are small differences in the wine, small just the differences in the activities you can do and you can emphasize the differences.
Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before joining the Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.
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