Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry has been steadily growing over the years. With the continuous influx of new business competitors, it’s understandable that the cannabis market’s average price per pound has been falling. However, this isn’t the case for Honest Marijuana Company, an eco-friendly cannabis growery based in Oak Creek, Colorado. Honest Marijuana Company has been able to maintain their price per pound at $2K—almost unheard for today’s ever-growing market!
It’s truly an incredible feat to maintain such a high price per pound with all the new competition, and ganjapreneurs who are new to the industry want to know how they do it. Luckily, Home Business Magazine got to sit down with Honest Marijuana Company’s Head Grower, Anthony Franciosi, to get the inside scoop. He happily shared his thoughts on how they have kept such a high price per pound when normally more competition means having to lower prices. He goes on to discuss the future of the industry and more.
How have you been able to keep Honest Marijuana Company’s price per pound at $2K while the industry average has been falling?
Anthony: “The main thing we’ve done is keep our focus on using high quality ingredients and the processes that make our flower unique. Everyone believes they’re doing that and I’m sure there are a lot of people who are, but we insist on plant-based nutrients, full-spectrum lighting, and probiotic methods to create the most desirable cannabis possible. What we do after that is package the marijuana in our unique, nitrogen-sealed cans by N2 patch. The idea and goal is to preserve the product in the same way it’s leaving our grow facility until the time that it gets to the end consumer. By doing that, we really can maintain the flavor profiles, the terpines, and other elements.
We grow it a certain way, we pick it at the right time, and then we process it in a way where when it’s perfectly ready to smoke the way we would want it, the way a home grower would preserve it for themselves, we use our special packaging to keep it at that moment in time. Just like any produce or food product goes bad over time, we package our product right at the time when we would most desire to consume it ourselves. Then we pass that experience right on to the consumer.”
What do you project will happen industry-wide over the next year or two? Do you think Honest Marijuana Company will be able to maintain its position and price?
Anthony: “Our position is that we’re little guys—we have one of the smaller facilities in the state. I think we’re smaller by 10 percent size-wise. By that nature, we are a boutique product. We have a small team of growers who have been with us since the beginning, for the most part. We are trying to maintain that handcrafted, boutique mentality and product quality. We think that is what will hold us over, despite the fact that more grows and product are coming online and people are producing more and more and with greenhouse methods and those types of things. We think that even if our pricing doesn’t stay where it is right now, we will definitely be able to maintain with where the market is heading based on the quality and consistency and the clean cannabis that we provide. These elements will help us stay profitable.”
Any other thoughts on where you think the future of the cannabis industry is going?
Anthony: “I think it is going more and more towards big agriculture-style grown product. There will be more greenhouses and more mixed lighting and natural light. Quality is not on the top of everybody’s list right now. The extracts and the edibles and a lot of those things are being made with subpar quality cannabis to keep the price down. Cannabis consumers are always going to want the highest and best quality that they can come across, and there is going to be a distinction in that over time. It will be similar to what you see with the different varieties, quality levels, and associated prices of wine.”
