Now that November 1st is here, most of the 2018 outdoor harvest has come down. It’s a busy time for cannabis, here’s some news around the industry and the early winter trends seen on the Washington Wholesale Marketplace.
California
This year marks the very first legal, recreational, outdoor harvest in California.
Where the market’s at
Example: Massive Industrial Grows
Right now from what we are seeing on the wholesale marketplace, California is seeing similar trends to other recreational states when just getting started with
a new system. Because finding compliant flower is still an issue, demand is generally higher than supply and the prices reflect. Another huge factor in California is the demand for distillates. In CA the vape market is already well established, and there are many big buyers focused solely on sourcing extraction material for distillate. To feed all these hungry extractors we’re seeing some bigger farms striving for a much more industrial, mass production style of growing than we see within the WA market.
The Kush Marketplace California Adventure
If you haven’t heard, right now our team is on an adventure around California! We sent one of our founders, Chase Nobles, along with the California sales team to travel the state and shake hands with players in the industry both big and small. They started the trip on Monday 10/29 and will stay on the road until the Las Vegas MJ BIZ CON in mid November. Also on the docket is an appearance on Mike Tyson’s podcast Bite The Mic, keep posted for the episodes release!
Here’s a blurb for a future blog, written by Shahein while on the road;
The kush tour – day 1
VW Vannigan, check. California marketplace crew, check. Cinema cameras, check. Munchies, check. We were ready to hit the road, and excited for the journey to come. What could go wrong?
The Vannigan
Well, it turns out the trusty vannigan wasn’t as trusty as we needed. We barely made it past Portland before she bit the dust. In the hands of a less-capable team this may have been a real problem, but thanks to the quick thinking and ingenuity of Chase and Peter we were still able to make it to Shasta by Midnight! Killer.
So what’s next for the California Kush team? We have a busy schedule over the next few weeks filled with farm tours, factory walkthroughs, podcasts, and trade shows. We’ll be getting to know some of our users on the California marketplace, learning about the challenges they face in the new legal landscape, and making connections along the way.
Hemp
The hemp industry is changing fast. As end products like hemp derived CBD Isolates gain popularity, the demand has skyrocketed for everything from raw material to crude oils. Why’s demand so high? Probably because the THC free, CBD isolates can be sold almost anywhere, including within I-502.
Field of Hemp, Harvest 2018
That’s right, if you haven’t heard, hemp derived CBD can be used within your Washington I-502 products. If you’re a processor, you can even purchase high CBD hemp to produce your own CBD Distillates (at a separate, non I-502 facility). There’s plenty of hoops to jump through, and the Kush Marketplace team can help.
We see a boom in CBD processing this year and the profits are high for processors that get in on the ground floor of this burgeoning industry. The time is now for WA cannabis processors to begin processing CBD hemp into oil and isolate. Those WA processors who are the first to adapt to this booming industry will see the kinds of massive returns on investment that CBD processors are set to have this year. Now is the time for CBD production and we’ve got compliant hemp easily accessible out of OR! If your interested in getting started with sourcing either CBD isolates or raw material just reach out to Kush.
Washington Early Winter Trends
Harvest is down, and sales are hot. Here’s some general trends on the WA Marketplace:
Canopy Size Down?
It has been rumored for some time that the 2018 outdoor harvest was grown under a smaller canopy than previous years. It’s still too early to tell but it also seems that producers are growing better and better under less canopy space. For many farms, this is their best harvest ever! This means more light dep / greenhouse quality flower is on the market, while there’s less supply of the lower quality outdoor usually sold bulk for extraction. Will this result in a shortage of affordable extraction material as Summer 2019 approaches?
U/U Flower Supply is High
One trend so far this 2018 harvest is that many farms are focusing selling flower untested and untrimmed (U/U). They are also holding fairly high on prices, only a few cents below the ready to package flower. It seems as if producers are spending less time and money on the clean up of flower and still working on curing, testing, and trimming. As we get closer to December there should be more bag ready flower available, but for right now supply of the Tested & Trimmed variety is fairly low, take advantage.
Going to Fresh Frozen
I’ve heard many thinking fresh frozen is the way they want to go because it takes far less time, effort and money to get ready for sale. In my personal opinion, Fresh Frozen is tough to find many options as far as buyers. If you have those buyers, consider yourself fortunate. Many producers have built a relationship with a processor previous to harvest and either getting a great buyout price or doing a split with the concentrate derivative from that material. Which sometimes just leave the producers with a bunch of concentrate to move. Honestly, If the folks that have untested/untrimmed (U/U) could trim and test their product, they would get top dollar for 2 to 3 products. (A buds, B buds and trim) Testing and trimming will add approximately .20-.30 per gram on dried flower. So if you can trim and test for around .10-.15 per gram, there’s money left on the table. I understand it is a cost of time, man power and money but in the end, keeping freezers running isn’t cheap either.
Demand for Extraction Material Coming
Right now most extractors are fat on fresh harvest material. It could be cheaper whole plant material bought wet, fresh frozen, or quickly dried flower sold in bulk right after harvest, but they have options. A dropoff in supply is inevitable.. As the outdoor farms start to sell out, and the processors work through their big planned October purchases there should be a rise in demand along with a fall in supply this Winter. No news here, but when you take in to account that outdoor canopy could have been down this year, and growers are holding onto U/U flower, then a shortage in extraction material is possible..
If you need any help, or have any questions feel free to reach out. We have many growers and experienced farm owners on staff, we can definitely help. Reach out over the site, or give us a call at 206-587-5874.