THC Potency Isn’t Everything: Here Are Some Strategies To Deal With Industry Challenges
The widespread myth of Indica, Sativa, and hybrid designation, as well as the focus on high THC, is still prevalent, according to Stella Morrison, founder and content strategist at CannaContent, who kicked off the discussion at the recent Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago. She explained that the lack of education among consumers presents challenges for cultivators and brands who want to introduce more nuanced or tailored products into the market.
Morisson hosted a panel discussion whether cultivation trends define retail demand or vice versa. Panelists sharing their expertise on the matter included Jordan Ascanio, creative director of CLS Holdings USA Inc.; Gary Santo, CEO of Rx Green Technologies; Will Bowden, founder & CEO of Grasshopper Farms; and Brett Novey, CEO of PharmaCann.
Santo highlighted that while price and potency are still selling in the newer markets, people in more mature markets are starting to seek for the fuller experience. “If you go to any of the markets where you can have sort of that deli style, smell the nose of the flower, you start to find that some of the best smelling flower doesn’t have the highest THC percentage,” he said. Santo added that this directly influences growers and brands in their decisions on what they’ll plant.
Morisson followed up, saying it’s all about “understanding the purpose of the flower that you’re growing in the first place.” There’s a difference between growing flower for extraction and growing because you want to sell whole flower.
No Cut-And-Paste Formula
PharmaCann’s Novey talked about having to understand what the consumers want, highlighting that’s the difficult part as it takes at least a year. “The cultivation facility is sort of always chasing the consumer a little bit,” he said.
He further stressed how that preference changes and today not only potency and price matter, …