Maine’s hashish increase is abandoning Aroostook growers
As Maine’s vigorous hashish scene explodes in retail markets, Aroostook County growers say the increase means extra work for much less cash.
Protected Options of Caribou was the primary medical marijuana store on the East Coast when it opened in Frenchville in 2011. Now The County has practically 20 medical and adult-use storefronts from the St. John Valley to Houlton.
Medical and adult-use hashish gross sales in Maine netted greater than $460 million in 2022, in response to the Maine Workplace of Hashish Coverage and Maine Income Providers.
That’s practically double the $258 million potatoes introduced in final 12 months.
Potatoes are nonetheless the state’s No. 1 meals crop, with round 90 % of them grown in northern Maine. However not like potatoes, little of the state’s hashish comes from The County. Demand for the product could also be up, however the worth growers get per pound is trending down. That’s why you gained’t discover many native growers, in response to Aroostook farmers.
“Three or 4 years in the past, you would get $4,000 a pound. Now it’s about $1,300 a pound,” stated James Bacon of Caribou, proprietor of Bacon Holdings LLC, a leisure marijuana rising operation in Presque Isle. “I discover that lots of the little cultivators are giving up as a result of they will’t make a dwelling.”
Maine legalized leisure marijuana in 2016. The state has 143 licensed cultivators, 222 shops and 118 product producers, in response to the newest Workplace of Hashish Coverage information. On the medical aspect, there are 736 licensed suppliers and 1.940 registered caregivers.
Presque Isle voted in 2020 to permit leisure hashish gross sales and manufacturing. The town has seven hashish companies, starting from medical to grownup use to cultivation. It was the open coverage that drew Bacon, additionally a hay farmer and former auto physique store proprietor.
Caribou doesn’t enable retail marijuana retailers or rising operations, however Presque Isle welcomed him, he stated. He can develop as much as 2,000 sq. toes on his present license and can harvest his first crop subsequent month.
It’s not for the faint of coronary heart. Setup prices about half one million {dollars}, and it might take 5 years or extra to recoup that, Bacon stated. Like another crop, hashish requires care. Pests like mites and ailments like powdery mildew can decimate a complete harvest.
Like most growers, Bacon operates indoors to have higher management over the rising surroundings. He makes use of automated processes to regulate issues like gentle and moisture. He plans to coordinate plantings to reap each 30 to 60 days, promoting to leisure companies in The County and statewide.
Right here’s why the excessive demand for hashish hurts: An increasing number of individuals have jumped into rising it, and have gotten actually good at it, Bacon stated. There’s a lot accessible that growers want a top-tier product with a view to promote it — they usually’ll get a few third much less per pound than a number of years in the past.
Dave Tucker of Houlton, who owns Crystal Clear Hashish together with his spouse, Crystal, agreed.
The COVID-19 pandemic gave the hashish trade an enormous enhance, he stated. Individuals have been caught at dwelling and aid cash poured in, at simply concerning the time retail marijuana gross sales began in Maine.
“Alongside got here lots of people that jumped into the rising side of it, which then flooded the market, and it grew to become a purchaser’s market. The customer was setting the value,” Tucker stated.
The Tuckers began Crystal Clear in 2014, when Crystal was identified with a medical situation that responded effectively to hashish. Then, a pound of marijuana bought for about $3,200. Now it’s anyplace from $1,200 to $1,600, Tucker stated.
The Tuckers develop about 1,000 sq. toes of medical hashish, which provides about 80 % of their Fort Kent retailer stock. In addition they personal rental properties, an workplace service and comfort retailer.
Competitors has pushed costs down, particularly in greater cities like Lewiston and Portland, Tucker stated. And with spikes in electrical energy, lease and delivery, rising prices have practically doubled.
Regardless of the challenges, one other Aroostook enterprise is rising its Grand Isle operation for each native and statewide markets.
Full Bloom Hashish grew to become The County’s first adult-use dispensary in 2021. It operates a medical marijuana store in Fort Kent and adult-use shops in Grand Isle and Presque Isle. The corporate lately opened a brand new cultivation constructing and is increasing its manufacturing facility.
Although the shops additionally promote merchandise from different Maine growers and producers to supply a various choice, everybody advantages when the product is grown domestically, firm President Steve Rusnack stated.
“It’s higher for the native Aroostook County financial system, as a result of we’re protecting the income right here and spending it right here,” he stated.
The brand new manufacturing constructing can have a lab and industrial kitchen and can enable Full Bloom to make extra merchandise, together with the edibles it sells at its personal retailers, in addition to at about 60 different shops throughout Maine, Rusnack stated.
The corporate plans to develop 300 kilos a 12 months in flower, or smokable product, and one other 200 to 300 kilos in materials for edibles and concentrates.
Bacon doesn’t assume farmers will see $4,000 a pound once more for hashish. However those that can develop bigger crops, greater than 500 sq. toes or so, can see modest success, he stated.
“It’s lots of work. It’s important to do it since you take pleasure in it,” he stated. “It’s not such as you’re going to be wealthy.”
