Prices plummet on cannabis, farmers ask for regulation

Who could have seen it coming? With the decriminalisation and deregulation of cannabis, prices have plummeted and farmers are asking for price regulation from the government. Now people can grow the plant on their own and sell the crops. The original farmers with government contracts have seen an 80% to 90% reduction in the value of their crops.

In many parts of Thailand, the oversupply of cannabis is evident, with new shops on every street corner and cannabis being incorporated into food and drink menus. About a million people were licensed to grow, sell, and consume the plant. That opening flooded the market.

PRICE DROP

Now, in the northern province of Nakhon Phanom, farmers are asking the government to set price regulations for cannabis. Before the legalisation of cannabis in June, special permission was required from universities, medical centres, and hospitals to allow farmers to grow. Cannabis leaves fetched 15,000 baht per kilogramme, while fresh stems sold for about 10,000 baht per kilogramme.

Stems have now dropped from 10,000 to about 1,000 baht per kilogramme and leaves fell from 15,000 to just 3,000 baht per kilogram.

The president of the Medicinal Herbs Community Enterprise of Na Kham in Sri Songkhram district said the group had a contract to grow cannabis for the Tambon Na Kham Health Promotion Hospital for two years now. The group’s 30 members were growing approximately 30,000 cannabis plants originally.

Farmers in the group were selling leaves, roots, and buds of the cannabis plant and earning 50,000 to 100,000 baht a month on their crop. But the potential to earn an income is vastly reduced now that growing and selling is practically a free-for-all.

“As anyone can grow cannabis today, they do not have to get permission to grow the plant, so we have more competitors who drive cannabis prices down.”

REGULATION REQUESTED

Now the farmers in the northeastern province are mobilizing, banding together about 20 similar enterprises that also grow cannabis crops. They plan to give cooperatives more bargaining power to help them negotiate higher prices.

The groups are also asking the government to step in and create set pricing for cannabis. They hope to make the heavily oversaturated market profitable again for farmers.

SOURCE: The Phuket News

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