Marijuana is BC's Newest Cash Crop

For decades, berries have been a large cash crop in BC. No only berries, BC growers rake in the cash from vegetables, fungus (truffles, mushrooms, etc.) grapes, and many more. This is primarily due to our soil composition, climate and advances in growing technology. With any market shift, comes new opportunity. Recent legislation and a growing demand means marijuana is BC’s newest cash crop opportunity.

Canada’s largest pot producer, Canopy Growth, is turning a bell-pepper farm in Aldegrove into Canada’s largest licensed cannabis facility. This massive operation will be 275,000 square meters of pot growing efficiency once completed. Interestingly, these greenhouses sit on Agriculture Land Reserve (ALR) property, which we all know is notoriously difficult to work with. The only way you can use ALR land is if you are considered part of the agriculture industry, would you like strawberries with your bag of weed?

The BC government has announced 31 licensed cannabis producers that are set to supply the recreational market once weed officially becomes legalized. Famous or infamous, depending on your point-of-view, BC Bud currently accounts for around 40% of cannabis produced across Canada. The non-legal producers have been cashing in on this crop for years, decades even. Although it is difficult to estimate the value of an illegal crop, experts say that BC Bud is worth anywhere from $2 billion to $7 billion province-wide. This is before legalization, regulation and taxation of course.

With legalized marijuana, smaller producers previously acting in the shadows are likely to be pushed to the side by the big-name players entering the market. The shift from medical-only to recreational opens up massive markets for companies already producing large quantities of marijuana. However, some people believe that the black market will still be able to compete due to lower prices.

Legalized marijuana is estimated to bring in $75 million in tax revenue in 2019, and some activist say that is a low estimate considering the huge markets for extracts, edibles or other non-traditional marijuana products.

Marijuana is BC’s newest cash crop and many growers are seizing the opportunity to increase revenues. There is no other crop in Canada that can come close to the value that marijuana offers, in terms of cost to produce and wholesale prices. Indoor growers are estimating it costs around $1-$1.50 per gram to produce cannabis. Statistics Canada suggests that Canadians on average pay around $7 per gram of marijuana, this is for black market weed. Some outdoor growers are estimating they can get production costs down under a dollar per gram, some have suggested costs as low as 10 cents per gram.

Regardless of your position on the subject, marijuana is BC’s newest cash crop and it is here to stay. Handlers stays on top of all new agriculture trends and we encourage you to visit the rest of our website for some excellent information on agriculture equipment!