The leisure hashish trade in Oregon is in its “weakest” financial place because the authorized market launched in 2016, according to a new report released by state regulators.
The report, launched final week by the Oregon Liquor & Hashish Fee, detailed that, after a “banner gross sales 12 months” in 2020, hashish producers within the state “entered 2021 exuberant and optimistic about the way forward for the market – and made their planting choices accordingly.”
“Nevertheless, the fading of demand as 2021 progressed, exacerbated by a document outside harvest in October 2021, set off a slide in costs that put the whole thing of the availability chain below strain in 2022,” the report mentioned. “The overabundance of provide all through 2021 and 2022 resulted in traditionally low wholesale and retail costs for each usable marijuana and focus/extract merchandise. The declining costs, together with a tempering within the progress of portions bought, resulted within the first-ever lower in annual gross sales (from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $994 million in 2022).”
That mixture of overabundant provide and fading demand, the fee mentioned within the report, has left the Oregon leisure hashish market in maybe its most precarious state because it opened for enterprise about seven years in the past.
“Earlier market cycles have been buoyed by massive annual will increase in shopper demand, and Oregon’s leisure marijuana market has efficiently transitioned most in-state shoppers to the authorized market. Nevertheless, the Oregon leisure marijuana market is in arguably the weakest financial place it has been in because the inception of this system in 2016 as a result of a lower within the progress of demand in Oregon, a manufacturing cycle that responds to market alerts on a lag, and growing stockpiles of stock,” the report mentioned.
The post-pandemic gross sales dip has develop into a hard development for Oregon’s hashish producers.
Final fall, the state’s Liquor & Hashish Fee sounded the alarm on year-over-year gross sales numbers in Oregon, noting that gross sales in October 2022 declined by about $15 million from October 2021.
Within the fee’s newest report launched final week, the regulators “[m]arket dynamics on the demand aspect additionally level to a turbulent 2023.”
“Total, shopper demand since 2021 has been at a decrease fee than prior years, and there was a notable shift down within the demand development line. Furthermore, the distribution of demand is shifting away from usable marijuana – each as an intermediate and remaining product. In earlier years, OLCC Processors have confirmed to be a ‘security internet’ for Producers by buying massive quantities of usable marijuana and giving Producers an extra outlet for his or her product,” the report mentioned. “Nevertheless, similar to usable marijuana stock, shares of focus and extract merchandise are at all-time highs and Processors are much less possible than up to now to show to Producers for brand new stock. This additionally comes at a time when shoppers are shifting in direction of different product sorts (notably edibles) and away from usable marijuana. These components all level in the identical course: fewer retailers for usable marijuana, and decrease costs for licensees.”
The fee mentioned that, though the state’s leisure hashish market “has confirmed resilient…two basic info stay unchanged” till the federal authorities takes motion and reschedules pot: “in-state provide is boundless, whereas in-state demand can solely develop a lot,” in keeping with the report.
“Oregon’s extraordinarily aggressive market options low costs for shoppers which have positioned the state’s authorized market to compete efficiently with the illicit market. The corollary, nonetheless, is that these low shopper costs power companies to function below low margins and excessive strain. The narrowness of these margins, and the power for Oregon hashish companies to function below them, stays to be seen as we enter 2023,” the report mentioned.