After low of $759 per pound in 2018, average wholesale marijuana price now back up to $1,316 per pound

Entrepreneurs who broke into Colorado’s cannabis industry at the ground level — the growers — have endured economic whiplash over the last two years as the market for wholesale flower experienced volatile swings in price.

The average market rate slumped to a low of $759 per pound in 2018 after peaking at $2,007 per pound in early 2015. That rate has rebounded to $1,316 per pound this month, after five consecutive quarters on the rise, reaching the highest price in three years.

Still, many anticipate the wholesale cost will remain relatively flat in 2020. Or at least they’re hoping it will.

“The boom is over and now we’re looking at a more mature market,” said Christian Hageseth, CEO and chairman of One Cannabis, which expects to produce 14,000 pounds of marijuana in Colorado in 2020.

In the six years since recreational legalization, Colorado’s $7.6 billion cannabis industry has been grappling with stabilization between the forces of supply and demand. And that’s perhaps no more evident than in the wholesale market.

In mid-2018, the number of licensed retail grows in the state peaked at 744, according to data from the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. [Read More @ The Denver Post]