With harvest time upon us, there are a number of outdoor cultivators in California that don’t have anywhere to process their cannabis compliantly. In the mountains of Mendocino and Humboldt counties there are a lot of existing outdoor cultivation properties doing that have gone for cannabis licenses this year, but the buildings on their properties weren’t built with permits, and because they typically don’t meet California codes and ADA compliance, they cannot be used for any function of the business, including processing. And in other jurisdictions similar hold ups with local ordinances, building permits, and compliance issues has led to a number of licensees finding themselves without a place to process their harvest. The hope had been that there would be processor licensees as part of the supply chain. But currently there are only about 30 temporary processor licensees in the entire state! And it is looking like the majority of these processing licensees are part of vertically integrated companies, so their services won’t be open to 3rd party vendors.
Just wondering if anyone out there is experiencing these issues? What’s the story of your situation? Have you found a processor that will take your harvest? Are you just going to try to find someone to buy it wet, or perhaps freeze it?
I am interested to hear what solutions operators are finding to deal with this?