Harvest and gross sales numbers each plunged final month in Oregon, and the outcome could possibly be cheaper hashish for shoppers.
That’s the upshot of a report by local news station KOIN, which cited the Oregon Liquor and Hashish Fee’s knowledge displaying “that in October 2021, almost $94 million went to the state’s hashish trade,” whereas final month, the trade acquired solely about $79 million in complete gross sales.
The station reported that the Oregon Liquor and Hashish Fee additionally “reported 5.3 million moist kilos harvested by all producers” in October of final yr, whereas final month, “that quantity fell to 4.1 million.”
“The September/October timeframe is a harvest ‘window’ for outside hashish grows in southern Oregon,” Mark Pettinger, spokesperson for the Oregon Liquor and Hashish Fee told the station. “The precise harvest time relies on when hashish farmers get their crop within the floor. Late rains pushed out the planting time this yr. Additionally, the prolonged sunny and heat climate this fall in all probability affected selections about when to reap.”
“On the demand aspect, hashish gross sales noticed some important spikes throughout the pandemic when shoppers had fewer decisions on tips on how to use their discretionary revenue. Additionally, there was a good quantity of federal stimulus cash that in all probability accounted for a few of these will increase. Since legalization in 2016 Oregon hashish gross sales had been experiencing regular year-over-year will increase,” Pettinger added.
Certainly, after hashish retailers throughout the nation noticed a dramatic bump in gross sales within the age of quarantine, the trade has careened again to earth in current months, significantly as inflation continues to tighten shoppers’ pocketbooks.
KOIN reported in August that the “pandemic increase could also be coming to an finish for Oregon’s hashish trade,” with the state experiencing a gentle decline in income from April onward. That downward development adopted two consecutive years wherein the state topped $1 billion in gross sales.
“In June, gross sales totalled $82,723,244. It’s solely the second time gross sales have dropped beneath $84 million because the begin of the pandemic,” the station reported on the time. Consultants mentioned there are a number of elements contributing to the lower in {dollars} offered, just a few of which embrace shopper developments, the function inflation is taking part in available on the market and the value at which retailers can promote their merchandise.”
Oregon marijuana shoppers who’re feeling the pinch of inflation might get pleasure from some aid from this development. As KOIN reported, the drop in costs “might profit shoppers who need the identical high quality of hashish for much less cash, however consumers and sellers within the trade are put at a drawback.”
“The best way that each one states have arrange their system is that no matter you develop and produce and do product manufacturing for and retail, all of it must be contained throughout the state,” Beau Whitney, a hashish trade marketing consultant, told the native station. “When you might have an ‘every part contained within the state’ mentality, there’s not sufficient shoppers to go round to deal with all of that offer proper within the state… when there’s oversupply and never sufficient demand, then costs go down as a result of corporations will get determined. They’ll wish to promote their product.”
“What cultivators have executed is that they’ve stopped cultivating,” Whitney added. “They’ve decreased the quantity of sq. ft or acres that they’re deploying for additional hashish cultivation as a result of in the event that they develop it, however they will’t promote it, then what’s the purpose? It’s similar to throwing cash down the bathroom.”
Oregon voters legalized adult-use hashish by approving a poll measure in 2014. Authorized pot gross sales started the next yr.