Cannabis Grower Survey Issue 2

February 7, 2023

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Wells Fargo Equity Research has released the Cannabis Cultivator Survey Edition 2 report, based on data collected with Cannabiz Media in the fall of 2022 as part of one of the most comprehensive outreach programs for cannabis growers.

The second edition of the survey report includes new and updated data from cannabis growers in seven key states, as well as comparisons to data reported in the Cannabis Cultivator Survey Edition 1, collected in Spring 2022 and published in June of the same year.

After analyzing the Fall 2022 data, Wells Fargo’s key finding is that there is “no recovery in sight,” which is a change from the key finding from the Spring 2022 report, which said, “This recovery is getting longer last”. Wells Fargo is “marginalized” on shares of Scotts Miracle Grow, Grow Generation and Hydrofarm Holdings Group, leaving all three rated at Equal Weight.

Important Findings

Cannabis prices still seem to be falling.
Only 27% of producers report selling prices above their break-even point.
Falling wholesale prices are causing the most frustration among growers (34%), as was the case in the spring 2022 report (38%).
64% of growers feel “bad” or “awful” about their current markets (up from 62% in Spring 2022).
22% of farmers plan to phase out completely or partially (22%), which is slightly less than in spring 2022 (27%).
Farmers plan to purchase soil (66% vs. 61% in Spring 2022), nutrients (48% vs. 73% in Spring 2022), irrigation (39% vs. 35% in Spring 2022) and lighting (29% vs. 32% in spring 2022).
Sentiment remains generally low, but there are some variations by state.
Most cultivators still do not expect short-term improvements.

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Detailed results

The complete Cannabis Cultivator Survey Edition 2 includes 40 pages and 140 charts of data and analysis. We’ve highlighted some of the charts in the report below, focusing on profitability, sentiment, likelihood of exit, and top causes of frustration. You can download the full report here.

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methodology

Cannabiz Media conducted a survey program with thousands of growers and eventually connected to 350 licensed cannabis growers in seven major US states including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.

The survey was conducted from October through December 2022 via email and direct call across a variety of grow environments (indoor, outdoor, greenhouse, etc.) and grow sizes (several hundred square feet to over 100,000 square feet). .

A total of 350 responses were received from seven states, representative of today’s largest cannabis markets: 87 from California, 11 from Colorado, three from Massachusetts, five from Michigan, 157 from Oklahoma, 41 from Oregon, and 46 from Washington.

You can download the full report here.

Next Steps

We will continue to survey growers over the coming months to see how their mood and economy is changing. Both this survey and the Spring 2022 survey provide a solid foundation for future study and trend analysis.

About the author

Ed Keating is co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies on compliance issues. Ed has led product, marketing and sales while overseeing complex, multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, security, environmental and human resources markets.

At Cannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators around the world as he and his team gather corporate, financial and licensing information to track the people, products and companies in the cannabis economy.

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on cannabis license data through our newsletter, alerts and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to get these weekly reports in your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo to learn more about how to access the Cannabiz media license database yourself to dig deeper into this data.