Cannabis dispensary employees in Manistee, Mich., a Lake Michigan coast city in the northwest part of the state, unionized earlier this month with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 876.

The organized workers at the Authentic 231 retail facility in Manistee operate under vertically integrated cannabis company Left Coast Holdings (Heritage Farms), which owns multiple dispensaries throughout the state.

Left Coast ownership initiated the unionization, according to a UFCW press release.

Local 876 President Dan Pedersen said the Authentic 231 workers represent the first cannabis dispensary in the state to organize.

“UFCW 876 looks forward to building a strong relationship with both owners and workers of Authentic 231, in providing job guarantees and protections to this rapidly growing industry,” Pedersen said in the release. “It is UFCW 876’s goal this effort serves as a model for sustaining unionizing efforts, by building stronger communities with stronger jobs.”

Left Coast ownership served as the facilitator in seeking a union for its employees, as well as the development of a Labor Peace Agreement to extend the upcoming bargaining agreement for all locations, according to UFCW.

“We as an ownership group share a lot of the same values as UFCW 876, so it was a natural decision to promote the unionization of our retail assets,” Left Coast CEO William McKenzie said in the press release. “It’s an exciting time to be in the cannabis industry, and we’re excited to help the UFCW expand their fight for workers’ rights into this burgeoning space. We see our pro-union stance as a great benefit in a state like Michigan.”

There are more than 42,000 UFCW members in Michigan and over 1.3 million UFCW members nationwide.

South Bend Industrial Hemp (SBIH), a Kansas-based company that grows and processes its own hemp for grain, fiber, and CBD, has partnered with Dakota Hemp LLC to increase industrial hemp processing capacity in the Midwest.

Dakota Hemp is a cultivator located in Wakonda, South Dakota. In a press release, SBIH said the goal of the partnership is to increase hemp hurd and fiber availability while decreasing shipping costs based upon customer location.

“John Peterson [owner of Dakota Hemp] and his team are top-notch South Dakota farmers and soon-to-be processors. This was a natural progression to where we feel the hemp industry needs to go to be successful: small regional facilities working together to build the supply chain and service farmers across the Midwest,” said Melissa Nelson, co-owner of SBIH, in a news release.

RELATED: How South Bend Industrial Hemp is Expanding the Crop's Horizons

SBIH opened its decortication facility in June of 2021, making it the first fiber processing facility in the state. The decorticator can run at a capacity of 1.8 tons per hour.

Last year, SBIH partnered with growers across Kansas, along with some in Oklahoma and Nebraska, to grow 1,000 acres of hemp for fiber. Of those acres, SBIH grew 160 for dual-purpose fiber and grain production. (SBIH has a 2,500-acre farm on which the team also grows crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, and milo.)

In 2021, South Dakota ranked no. 8 in most acres of hemp harvested in the country, with 1,700 total. Kansas ranked no. 18 with 400 acres harvested total

TORONTO, March 21, 2022 – PRESS RELEASE – Cronos Group Inc., an innovative global cannabinoid company, announced that its board of directors has appointed Mike Gorenstein as chairman, president, and CEO, effective March 21, 2022, in connection with Kurt Schmidt’s retirement.

“Mike is a visionary leader who knows Cronos better than anyone,” said Jim Rudyk, lead independent director of Cronos. “He is uniquely positioned to oversee the implementation of our strategic and operational realignment initiatives as we create a highly differentiated branded cannabinoid platform to drive long-term success. A key element of our plan is being ready for entry into the U.S. cannabis market once federally permitted—with Mike leading that charge every step of the way.”

Rudyk added, “On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank Kurt for his stewardship through the challenges of the pandemic and broader industry headwinds. We are grateful for his contributions to Cronos and wish him all the best in his retirement.”

Gorenstein previously served as chairman, president and CEO of Cronos until September 2020, when he transitioned to the executive chairman role. In addition, he is a co-founder and passive member of Gotham Green Partners.

“I am excited to return as CEO and accelerate progress by leveraging the innovative and daring approach that Cronos was built on,” Gorenstein said. “We positioned Cronos to have the best tools to succeed in this market with our evolving asset-light supply chain, an organically growing brand in Canada, differentiated IP with a focus on rare cannabinoids, and one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry. Now it is time to use those tools to deliver meaningful shareholder value.”

Gorenstein’s immediate areas of focus include:

• Delivering margin accretive growth focusing on adult-use product formats;
• Continuing to drive rare cannabinoid development and commercialization strategy;
• Cutting costs and focusing investments to the highest ROI opportunities, specifically “borderless” investments that can create incremental revenue as new markets come online;
• Leading a successful transition from Peace Naturals Campus to a more agile supply chain; and
• Positioning Cronos to win in the U.S. cannabis market.

Although demand for adult-use cannabis soared throughout 2021 in Michigan, falling retail prices have left some business executives uncertain of their future in an increasingly competitive market.

From flower, vapes, edibles and a host of other products, Michigan dispensaries sold $124.6 million of adult-use cannabis in January 2022, representing an 84.8% increase from the $67.4 million sold in January 2021.

But during that same one-year timeframe, the average retail flower price dipped from $323.68 to $152.74 per ounce at adult-use dispensaries, a 52.8% price decrease, according to Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA).

The percent decrease for medical flower was nearly the same. The average retail price per ounce for medical flower dipped from $252.04 in January 2021 to $119.64 in January 2022, representing a 52.5% decrease.

Michigan was the eighth state to launch adult-use cannabis sales in the U.S. when licensed dispensaries began opening their doors to customers in December 2019. During that inaugural month of adult-use sales, the average retail price of flower was $516.21 per ounce, according to information from Metrc, the state’s seed-to-sale tracking provider.

Cannabis business executives from Buchanan and Niles—cities in the southwestern part of the state—remain skeptical of those falling prices making any kind of meaningful rebound in the near future, the South Bend Tribune reported.

“Prices have been dropping since day one and they continue to drop,” said Rick Paniagua, founder and CEO of Cannavista Wellness in Buchanan. “Major manufacturers are coming into the market and bringing a production scale that supports lower prices.” 

George Lynch, CEO of Green Stem Provisioning Center in Niles, told the Tribune, “When we opened about two years ago, there were probably 100 or 120 growers in Michigan. Today, we’re approaching 1,000 growers.”

As of Feb. 28, 2022, Michigan had 616 active grower licenses and 460 active retailer licenses for adult-use cannabis, as well as 638 active grower licenses for medical cannabis, according to MRA.

And Michigan’s cannabis market only appears to be getting more competitive.

The first phase of a planned 350,000-square-foot growing and processing facility by 305 Farms is getting ready to start cultivating cannabis as soon as this week in Lawrence, a small town about 25 miles west of Kalamazoo in the southwestern part of the state.

While the first phase includes 44,000 square feet, once the entire project is completed by 2025, the facility will house up to 80,000 cannabis plants at a time, MLive.com reported.

Mitchell Maltz, the vice president of business development at 305 Farms, told the news outlet the company will own the largest single-stack facility in the state once the project is completed.

“We decided when we came to Michigan that we wanted to make sure that we were able to get a grow site where we can have unlimited amounts of growing, and that’s very difficult to have in the state,” he said. “A lot of municipalities that issue licenses, they issue one or two Class C licenses.”

Class C licenses allow for up to 2,000 plants to be grown at a time in Michigan.

“So, we were able to say, if we’re going to do this, we’d like to get one site where we can say, ‘Hey how about giving us 40 licenses. What if we want to grow 80,000 plants?’” Maltz said. “Lawrence was so nice to us. They said, ‘Hey, if you guys want to build this kind of facility, and you’re going to create the jobs that you’re going to create, we’re all for it.’”

The company is promising to create 200 jobs for the community of roughly 1,000 residents, with a minimum pay of $20 for entry-level positions at the facility, MLive.com reported.

As of Feb. 28, 2022, there were 38,369 employees working under licensed adult-use and medical cannabis businesses in the state.