ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Frustration is growing in New York’s cannabis industry over the lack of retail shops that are currently opened.
Licensed cultivators and processors in New York fear all their products and hard work could spoil by the time they’re able to sell.
Currently, New York State has licensed 295 growers and 40 processors.
Cannabis processor Nicolas Guarino tells CBS6’s Briana Supardi that his business, Naturae Oil, invested millions in adult-use marijuana production last year after the state projected that there would be 150 stores opened by this June.
“We had projected roughly 30 stores, thinking we were being very, very conservative, and here we are, June next week, and we’re going to have maybe 12 stores, so less than 10 percent of what was expected,” said Guarino.
Right now, there are only 12 licensed dispensaries opened in the state, a far cry from the 150 the state projected.
This means his business, along with the dozens of other cannabis processors, and hundreds of growers all have products to sell, but barely any buyers.
“Everybody has put in a ton of investment for this coming season,” said Guarino. “There’s going to be a ton of cultivators out there that aren’t going to be able to go into the ground or become insolvent because the market is just not at the size that we were promised it was going to be.”
According to Guarino, time is also against them because cannabis has an expiration date. While manufactured products like gummies and vapes have a two-year shelf life, smokeable flower is only good for a year.
“The farmers, right now, really have the biggest shelf life pressure as we already go into a new growing season,” said Guarino.
CBS6’s BRIANA SUPARDI: “How has this slow roll out of opening dispensaries in the state, how has it impacted operations for your business?”
NICOLAS GUARINO: “We just haven’t been able to commercialize as much oil as we were planning to, we’ve been hard pressed on economically to make all payments that were required to our farmers and our contracted farms.”
So less stuff, less hiring, less jobs created so far and less sales.”
During a meeting on Thursday, John Kagia, Director of Policy at the state Office of Cannabis Management, proposed an idea to help increase sale opportunities.
“It’s a farmer’s market model through which growers would have the ability to get together and organize farmer’s markets in partnership with the retailer,” Kagia said.
“If you have a farm, a location that you want to set up an event, we’ll support that, but also if you want to piggyback on an event that already exists, a concert, a festival, some other sort of agricultural event,” he continued.
However, he mentioned that there are still several issues with the idea that need to be worked out, so it’s unclear if and when it’ll be approved.
CBS6 reached out to OCM to learn more about why the roll out of dispensaries in the state has been so slow, but they were unable to do an interview Friday.
Guarino says he’s hoping that there will be at least 30 to 50 stores open in the state by the end of the year.
H/T: cbs6albany.com
