Cannabis Cultivators Rank Their Top Frustrations in New Survey

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Despite facing a long list of challenges, data from the new Wells Fargo and Cannabiz Media report, Cannabis Cultivator Survey Edition 2 – No Recovery in Sight, shows that most licensed cannabis growers plan to maintain or increase production during the next 12 months.

Digging deeper into the data, the study reveals what cannabis cultivators’ biggest frustrations are, ranks the frustrations to show how common and widespread they are, and compares the results to the findings revealed in the first edition of the Cannabis Cultivator Survey.

These are Cannabis Cultivators’ Biggest Frustrations Today

During October through December 2022, the researchers surveyed licensed cannabis growers in key states deemed to be representative of the largest cannabis markets in the United States today: California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. The new Fall 2022 data was then compared to data collected in Spring 2022 for the inaugural Cannabis Cultivator Survey collected.

The Fall 2022 ranking of cultivators’ biggest frustrations across all respondents didn’t change from Spring 2022, but some of the percentages fluctuated:

  • Declining Wholesale Price: 34% (down from 38% in Spring 2022)

  • License Bureaucracy / Burdensome Compliance Requirements: 29% (up from 25% in Spring 2022)

  • High Taxes: 10% (down from 12% in Spring 2022)

  • Black Market: 15% (up from 10% in Spring 2022)

  • Lack of Distribution: 5% (down from 8% in Spring 2022)

  • Other: 8% (up from 7% in Spring 2022)

How do your frustrations compare to your fellow cannabis cultivators’ top challenges?

Top Cannabis Cultivator Frustrations by State

As was found in the Spring 2022 survey results, growers in different states ranked their biggest problems a bit differently.

In California, growers said their biggest problems are as follows: declining wholesale prices (30%, down from 41% in Spring 2022) followed by license bureaucracy (30%, up from 20% in Spring 2022), high taxes (13%, down from 21% in Spring 2022), the black market (13%, up from 4% in Spring 2022), lack of distribution (2%, down from 9% in Spring 2022), and other (10%, up from 5% in Spring 2022).

Keep in mind, California regulators changed the tax rules in July 2022 to provide some relief for cannabis cultivators from the previously undue tax burden they faced. The change eliminated the California cultivation tax and capped the 15% excise tax for three years. Given this change, it’s not surprising that frustrations related to high taxes dropped considerably between Spring and Fall 2022.

In Colorado, the ranking looks quite different than it did in Spring 2022. Colorado growers ranked declining wholesale prices as their biggest problem (33%, up from 31% in Spring 2022) followed by high taxes (22%, up from 15% in Spring 2022). All other frustrations were cited by 11% of respondents. License bureaucracy dropped from 54% in Spring 2022 to 11% in Fall 2022. Black market, lack of distribution, and other each rose from 0% in Spring 2022 to 11% in Fall 2022.

Oklahoma growers cited the following as the problems causing their biggest frustrations: declining wholesale prices (34%, down from 36% in Spring 2022), license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (34%, up from 31% in Spring 2022), the black market (16%, up from 11% in Spring 2022), other (8%, down from 9% in Spring 2022), lack of distribution (2%, down from 8% in Spring 2022), and high taxes (5%, up from 3% in Spring 2022).

Licensed growers in Oregon were most likely to say their biggest problem is declining wholesale prices (40%, no change from Spring 2022) followed by license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (20%, up from 16% in Spring 2022), the black market (17%, down from 28% in Spring 2022), lack of distribution (9%, no change from Spring 2022), high taxes (9%, up from 2% in Spring 2022), and other (6%, up from 5% in Spring 2022).

In Washington, declining wholesale prices (34%, down from 41% in Spring 2022) and license bureaucracy / burdensome compliance requirements (20%, up from 17% in Spring 2022) were the biggest problems for the most growers followed by lack of distribution (15%, up from 9% in Spring 2022), high taxes (12%, down from 28% in Spring 2022), the black market (10%, up from 6% in Spring 2022), and other (10%, up from 0% in Spring 2022).

Up Next – How Cannabis Really Cultivators Feel

Do cannabis cultivators feel great or terrible? Will they stick it out or exit the industry? Stay tuned for our next blog post where we’ll dive into the report data and discover what licensed growers revealed in their survey responses!