ARGYLE, N.Y. — Seth Jacobs has about 100 bins jam-packed with cannabis flower sitting in storage at his upstate New York farm.
And that’s a issue. There aren’t enough puts to sell it.
The 700 pounds (318 kgs) of pungent flower was collected last year as part of New York’s initially crop of lawfully grown pot for leisure usage. He likewise has approximately 220 pounds (100 kgs) of extract. Months lateron, there are just a lots certified dispensaries statewide to sell what Jacobs and more than 200 other farmers produced.
Now, another growing season is underway and farmers still sitting on much of last year’s harvest are in a monetary bind.
“We are truly under the weapon here. We’re all losing cash,” Jacobs justrecently stated at his farm on rolling land near the Vermont border. “Even the most entrepreneurial and enthusiastic among us simply can’t relocation much item in this environment.”
New York pot farmers aren’t the just ones havingahardtime with challenging financial conditions. Marijuana growers in western states have likewise grumbled that low rates, hard competitors from the black market, high state taxes and federal banking and exporting constraints haveactually made it difficult for legal growers to make cash.
But the farmers’ predicament in New York is straight connected to the rough launch of the state’s leisure pot market.
State leaders had constantly prepared to equipment up the market in phases, offering a opportunity for a varied set of individuals to get a toe-hold. The state’s procedure for licensing brand-new dispensaries, nevertheless, has moved at a far slower speed than anticipated.
Last fall, Gov. Kathy Hochul anticipated 20 brand-new stores opening every month or so to start this year. Instead, one shop was open by the start of the year, with 11 more opened because.
Unlicensed stores hurried in to fill the void, specifically in New York City, however those outlets aren’t a legal market for the state’s farmers. Federal law forbids the New York farmers from carrying their crop throughout state lines.
That indicates minimal rack area to sell the 300,000 pounds (136,000 kgs) of marijuana grown in the state last year, much of the item indicated to be processed for products like gummies and vapes.
Statewide, there is approximated to be hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unsold marijuana, about 80% in the kind of marijuana oil, according to the Cannabis Association of New