California pot harvest underway - Entrepreneur Generations

As the cannabis harvest begins in northern California, those interested can begin to get a picture of what legal grow operations can bring to the state's economy. Most of the area's estimated tens of thousands of growers are still operating on the black market, but many are trying to make a go of it legally. Growers worry about the industry's future amid stiff competition from other farmers, high regulation compliance costs, and worries about wildfires.

For those who can deal with those issues, cannabis can be lucrative. "Roughly 279 acres are licensed for outdoor cannabis cultivation across a five-county Northern California marijuana growing region — the Emerald Triangle counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity and lesser-known cannabis country in Sonoma and Lake counties, according to a Press Democrat analysis of state licensing and Sonoma County permitting data," Julie Johnson reports for the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa. That translates to a legal outdoor harvest worth about $474 million a year, barring catastrophic crop loss and based on industry standards for yield and the current wholesale value of marijuana, about $500 a pound."

Wildfires destroyed some of last year's harvest, so this year's haul is better positioned to provide a benchmark for how much revenue a cannabis farm can bring to the state's economy. It seems to be providing fewer jobs to seasonal workers. 

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2RUFW2o California pot harvest underway - Entrepreneur Generations

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