Feature of Month
Flora Farms Cultivation , Expands to 90,000 Square Feet of Canopy Space to Meet Missouri ’ s Cannabis Consumer Demand
Editorial by Clayton Stallings
All photos by Karla Deel of Flora Farms .
In several of the past issues of The EVOLUTION Magazine , we ’ ve published several articles and editorials addressing the current supply and demand issues in the cannabis industry in Missouri . When you turn on a local news station , you will most likely see all of its coverage on the cannabis industry regarding this same topic . This can sometimes leave the readers or viewers with doubts about the industry ’ s preparedness for adult use , but this couldn ’ t be further from the truth for many cultivators .
Yes , there are supply and demand issues , but no one could have expected how much local Missourians would take part in adult use , much less the number of customers coming to Missouri from out of state . According to the Division of Cannabis Regulation , Missouri surpassed $ 1 billion in legal cannabis sales on May 2 since sales began on October 17 , 2020 . More than 350 million of that has taken place in the first three months of adult use going into effect .
Those are huge numbers , but it doesn ’ t mean that the industry wasn ’ t preparing . In fact , many were even taking risks in the midst of that preparation . One of these groups was Flora Farms .
Flora Farms has three cultivation licenses in Humansville , MO . When the state was considering the application process before medical marijuana licenses were awarded , it tried to encourage the new cannabis industry to choose the locations for businesses in high-unemployment and economically depressed areas . The applicants were awarded bonus points if they located their business in these areas , which was the reason Flora Farms chose Humansville . To this date , it has provided jobs for over 200 employees in the area .
Flora Farms is one of the few cultivation license owners that are entirely locally owned ( 80 % Missourian and 20 % bordering states ). Before adult use passed at the end of 2022 , it ran the three cultivation licenses out of two buildings , but only at two-thirds capacity . Each license is allowed a total of 30,000 square feet of canopy space , and it was running at 60,000 square feet of canopy space pre-adult use .
At that time , the problem was just the opposite as it is now . There was far more supply than demand . Despite this , Mark Hendren , President of Flora Farms , and his leadership team decided to take the risk and start construction on its third building .
“ The third building just recently got dried in early May of this year , a construction reference for completing the roof ,” Hendren explained . “ We ’ ve had the concrete pad and plumbing ready for over a year with our fingers crossed that adult use would be passed by Missouri voters , and as soon as it was , we started finishing construction . We ’ ve encountered some supply chain delays with construction materials just like everyone else , so it ’ s going to take a while to get all the electrical and HVAC components in to have the third building completely operational , but we are going to go with a phased-in approach which we think the state is going to approve for us , which would allow us to use the North End of this building in about 60 days . That will get us additional dry and curing space so we can maximize everything that is going in the first two buildings .”
Mark Hendren , President of Flora Farms .
36 JUNE 2023