Cannacurio #121: Q3 2025 Manufacturing License Summary

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In the last of our quarterly reviews, we turn to manufacturing, the least volatile of the three activities we cover. We categorize a manufacturer as a licensee who processes cannabis-infused products such as edibles or concentrates, but does not grow or sell them to customers. These licenses are issued less frequently than cultivation or retail licenses. And in the third quarter, Emerald Intel was able to directly link brands to licenses – an industry first.

As usual, manufacturing licenses were the smallest category in terms of granting new licenses. In the third quarter, 170 new licenses were issued in 17 states. That's a 22% decrease from 218 in the second quarter.

Important insights from manufacturing

• There were 170 new manufacturing licenses granted in the third quarter of 2025, compared to 218 in the second quarter.
• New York topped the rankings with 48 points, followed by New Mexico with 38 points.
• Seventeen states issued licenses for this activity in the third quarter, up from 16 in the second quarter.

The graphs below show that new licenses are added in a fairly narrow range of 39 to 96, with an average of 74.5 new licenses per month.

In the Q3 rankings, New York and New Mexico are at the top and will swap places from Q2 onwards. In the second quarter, these two states accounted for 70% of new manufacturing licenses, and in the third quarter the share fell to 50.6%.

And here are the overall rankings for active manufacturing licenses in the US:

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Manufacturing continues to be the most stable of the three primary license types. About 75 new driver's licenses are issued nationwide every month. The largest decline in such licenses is expected to be in Oklahoma, which has lost 139 production licenses so far this year, down from 87 in the second quarter. Minnesota, the new kid on the block, issued five new licenses during the quarter.

author

Ed Keating is co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company's data research and government relations. Throughout his career, he has worked with and advised information companies in the compliance area. Ed has led product, marketing and sales while overseeing complex, multi-country 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 collect 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 of Northwestern University.

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Cannacurio is a regular column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive licensing data platform. Check out Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and information.

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