![]() ![]() ![]() That gives it the size to serve a national customer base, if the federal government decriminalizes cannabis. Along with its purchase of Yerba Buena Farms, Stem has also bought cannabis companies in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maryland and Oklahoma. It’s one of many examples of consolidation as larger companies buy-up smaller ones, said Dinnin Huff, the marketing professor at Oregon State University. That’s a sales price the equivalent of paying $100,000 every day for the next 25 years. Massachusetts-based Curaleaf, for example, finished its purchase of Cura Cannabis in Portland for $1 billion - with the backing of a Russian billionaire. cannabis sector has found other ways to tie Oregon to the wider world. Though the Eswatini deal may not be gaining traction, the U.S. In a statement to OPB, Stem said its plans for Eswatini will not be completed and it now considers the matter closed. “That has the possibility of building resentment towards the authorities because this is people’s livelihoods.”īut those concerns look moot now. “We’ve seen reports that there’s been more cannabis destroyed over the past few weeks in Eswatini that was being grown by small holder farmers, than there has been in the past years, if not decades combined,” said Kagia. He said a monopoly could result in political unrest in the country. “We think there’s real risk with adopting this as a model towards the legalization and regulation of cannabis,” said John Kagia, a cannabis market analyst with New Frontier Data. State Department’s report on Eswatini finds the country has significant human rights problems including corruption, arbitrary killings and restrictions on political participation. In a statement to OPB, Stem said it doesn’t discuss pending matters regarding past employees.īut Leu’s opposition to the monopoly appears to have some merit. She has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. “I wanted to make Stem aware that we knew about it and I wanted to make our temporary employees aware that they were also contributing to this,” Leu said. Sary Leu says she wrote on the white board at work so employees would know what Stem Holdings was planning. She accused Stem of human rights violations in big letters on the company whiteboard. Leu said she believes that would deprive small farmers of their livelihoods. And while cannabis is not legal, authorities have treated it as such a low priority that there’s a sizeable export trade with South Africa.ĭespite those exports, in a press release last year Stem Holdings announced it had preliminary approval to be the only licensed cannabis producer in Eswatini, for a period of at least 10 years. “This monopoly deal would basically make it so the only people who’re making money from this is Stem Holdings and the king, or like the monarchy,” Leu said.įarming is a significant industry among the one million people who live in Eswatini. But it was nothing compared to the shock staff received when they looked into Stem’s filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and found plans for a cannabis monopoly in Eswatini. Stem Holdings owns TJ’s Gardens in Eugene, manages Alternative Organics in Medford and recently bought Yerba Buena Cannabis in Hillsboro.įormer Yerba Buena employee Sary Leu said the purchase was a surprise. Sary Leu, who formerly worked for Stem-holdings-owned Yerba Buena in Hillsboro, said she was shocked when she learned the company that bought her employer had plans to establish a cannabis monopoly in a small African nation. And it briefly floated a plan to create a cannabis monopoly with the monarchy of Eswatini, a small country in southern Africa that’s often referred to as Swaziland. Stem Holdings is based in Florida, but it has a significant footprint in the Pacific Northwest. In short, as Oregon State University marketing professor Aimee Dinnin Huff put it: “The market is becoming more mature.” Global ambitions span from Oregon to Florida - and on to Africa Russian oligarchs and African monarchs have even taken note. Small-scale consumers are getting more comfortable with the idea of stopping by the dispensary for a joint or edible, driving sales up 40% last year to over $1 billion. Small shops are consolidating into chains. As Oregon’s cannabis market matures, and a push to federally legalize the product gains momentum, an industry that got its start in basements, backyards and forests is taking its ambitions global, at the same time as local consumption drives breakneck growth. ![]()
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