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They may not be a panacea for the state’s beleaguered cannabis growers, but the Cannabis Growers Showcases are providing a needed shot in the arm.
Sales figures provided to NY Cannabis Insider indicate a robust marketplace just three weeks after the first showcase debuted in New Paltz.
That showcase — which began on Aug.10 and has been held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday since in the parking lot behind the village municipal building — has attracted between 180 and 300 customers and taken in more than $20,000 per day, according to figures provided to NY Cannabis Insider.
The average transaction ranges between $125 and $150, according to Matt Robinson, CEO and founder of Legacy Dispensers.
An Albany-based dispensary delivery service, Legacy handles all sales transactions because growers cannot sell directly to consumers.
While its impact on the huge stockpile of cannabis — estimated to be around 300,000 pounds statewide — may be limited, at least it’s a start.
“We’re making a real dent” in reducing the backlog, said Robinson, but “we need to actually put a hole in this thing” by opening more dispensaries, he said.
The current lawsuit and court injunction have “really screwed things up,” Robinson added.
Gov. Kathy Hochul had forecast that more than 120 outlets for recreational marijuana would be open by June of this year. But, as of the end of last week, only 23 retail dispensaries — 17 brick and mortar stores and six delivery services — have opened across the state.
Partly to address that problem, the OCM in May unveiled the showcase plan to allow conditional growers and Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURDs) to team up and sell products at a location other than the retailer’s shop. The agency is allowing the showcases to take place anywhere organizers can get municipal approval, and there’s no limit to how many growers can participate in each event.
Buyers at the showcase events are “mostly going for the buds,” Robinson noted – probably because state regulations require that showcase sales for edibles, gummies and cannabis-infused drinks cannot exceed 35%, he said.
“Without a doubt, New Paltz has been a success,” he added. “The people have been great and very happy to have us there.”
The same goes for the just-opened cannabis showcase in Copake, Robinson said, adding that his dispensary is handling the actual transactions for most of the upstate showcases planned between now and the end of the year.
Legacy reports that total sales for New Paltz and Copake for the Aug. 17-19 weekend topped $80,000.
Tessa Williams, owner of Empire Farms in Copake, one of four growers participating in the New Paltz showcase, said her woman-owned and operated business has been selling about 200 jars of bud each day in New Paltz.
Williams said the Copake market, which began on Thursday, Aug. 17, on the site of Empire Farms, has also been a big hit with cannabis-starved denizens.
Copake, located in a rural area of Columbia County near the Connecticut border, hasn’t seen crowds as large as New Paltz, but the reception from people has been “amazing,” Williams said.
And there’s been no shortage of farmers looking to sell their crop.
“I’m rotating them on weekends,” Williams noted, because “they’re coming from all over … Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and even upstate New York.”
Have the showcases started to reduce the backlog of fresh weed in her inventory?
“It’s helping for sure,” Williams said, but at the same time, “we’re sitting on a lot of cake, and you can’t just let it sit around.”
The shelf life of premium bud is short, and “not everyone in the business has the capital to cure it properly.”
“You can’t just throw it in a bin,” she quipped. “It’ll get moldy and go bad.”
While preliminary indications are positive, said Jason Minard, general counsel of Hepworth Farms in Milton, “it’s early on.”
“We’re seeing some fairly good numbers from New Paltz, but it’s a very small event.”
Minard added that he’s seen great enthusiasm for an upcoming, first-of-its-kind event dubbed “All Access USA’s 1st Annual New York Cannabis Music Festival,” slated for Nov. 4 at Minard’s Family Farm in Milton.
But time will tell, Minard said, since more and more showcases are starting up, such as events in Saratoga Springs, Brooklyn and at the State Fair in Syracuse, which should give us a “much better idea of how things are going,” he said.