r/CannabisThailand Newsletter - Issue #15

Sawadee Everyone,

Another wet week in Thailand. Hope everyone is okay.

While most people, myself included, believed that the high prices in Thailand for bud would come down once Thai growers began catching up with market demand, we're still not there yet.

In speaking to both dispensary owners and growers, it's still confusing as to why Thailand has some of the highest, if not the highest, weed prices in the world.

If you look at a place like California where the average price per single gram of mid-grade cannabis is $14 USD (532 baht) it's difficult to see how Thailand's average price per gram is 686 baht.

Let's examine this a bit.

Your fixed costs for growing cannabis are, cost of the cultivation site, employee labor costs, and taxes.

Then you have variable prices that are tied to the amount of product you're producing. Variable costs would be the cost of utilities (water, electric, etc), nutrients, soil, etc.

The gap in just labor costs alone should make Thailand the cheaper place to grow marijuana.

For instance, the minimum wage for a company with less than 25 employees is $14 (532 baht) an hour in California. The minimum wage in Thailand is 353 baht PER DAY!

A grower in California only making minimum wage (unlikely) would make about 4,256 baht per day compared with 353 baht per day in Thailand (assuming growers employ people at minimum wage). Labor in Thailand is 12x cheaper.

And we're not even digging into the details of how much benefits, social security taxes, etc add to the overall additional costs of labor.

The average price of electricity in California is $0.31/kilowatt-hour (kWh) which is 11.78 baht per kWh.

In Thailand, if you're using over 400 kWh (and you will be using that much if you're growing indoors) the price is 4.4217 baht per kWh.

So, energy prices in Thailand are almost 1/3 of what they are in California.

Nutrients and soil can be more expensive in Thailand, but not by much, and that is if they growers import US nutrients or other growing supplies.

There are plenty of locally produced nutrients available in Thailand without brand names like General Hydroponics and organically grown weed would not need to import anything.

And let's not forget that in California, someone is paying the cost of the regulatory oversight of the industry.

The licensing process can be grueling and expensive. A dispensary license in Los Angeles County can run between $2 million and $10 million as virtually the only licenses available are via transfer of a business with a license to a new owner.

And it doesn't stop there. in California every plant is tracked from seed to the point of sale to make sure people aren't overproducing and selling product illegally.

Product has to be lab tested to verify that it's fit for human consumption and to verify THC/CBD levels.

Thailand has none of those costs.

Yet, somehow, Thai grown weed is more expensive.

Are the prices higher because of supply-side issues? It's possible but seems unlikely given feedback I've heard.

Is it demand-side issues? Possibly, but then how does one explain all of the empty dispensaries and dispensaries with low social media followers.

I won't name names but one fairly well-known, and often mentioned in the press, dispensary has less than 1,500 followers on LINE, the main platform for dispensaries to sell online.

That's one of the bigger ones.

Most have only a few hundred followers. And while that may be enough business to sustain a mom and pop level operation, it's not what one would expect from an industry with demand-side problems.

So why is weed more expensive in Thailand than California?

Some of it is greed.

In almost every market that has gone legal, everyone has misjudged the profitability of growing or selling weed.

There's always a mad rush to get in at the beginning and everyone that gets a license starts imagining Lambos and yachts in their future.

I think there's some of that happening at the moment. People feel like they deserve to make large profits because everyone knows drug dealers make lots of money.

But, there's also an element of bad business planning.

Someone that goes out and spends 1 million baht on setting up a grow operation wants to recover their costs quickly. Same for a dispensary owner that plows millions into renting and renovating a storefront in a high traffic area.

Those costs have to be amortized over their useful life. You're not supposed to make your money back in a few months.

So, perhaps the most likely explanation for higher prices in Thailand is simply that a large part of the cannabis industry in Thailand is still in the hands of smaller, inexperienced business people.

In the US, Canada, and elsewhere VC and large investor backed cannabis ventures are more common. Dispensaries and growers have access to capital that may not be available to small Thai businesses.

Thai businesses operate on cash flow while a well financed business can think about longer-term ROI.

Currently, many larger investors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the cannabis law to pass so the industry is dominated with lots of mom and pop level businesses.

Perhaps it's not the supply/demand problem that needs to be solved in order to get prices down to the sub-300 baht level but more capital so that more mature business operations can be introduced.

I guess we'll see over the coming months how this plays out but hopefully prices begin trending downward over the coming months.

Cheers,

u/CannabisThailandMod

---

Weed Prices in Thailand

Based on our analysis, the average price per gram of cannabis in Thailand has been ฿646 over the 129 days since cannabis has been legal in the kingdom.

The average price of cannabis in Thailand in the last month has been ฿661 and ฿686 over the last week.

Source

Thailand Weed Prices 2022-10-13 submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

Meme of the Week

Polls

Last week we asked whether you like to wake and bake or toke and sleep. Most of you enjoy a little nip before bedtime with 49.4% saying they like to toke a bit before going to bed. Only 12.3% of you like to wake and bake but 38.3% do both.

[POLL] Are there enough dispensaries in your area? — www.reddit.com

If online ordering wasn't an option, do you think the current number of dispensaries in your immediate area is adequate?

View Poll

submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

The Week in Review

ATTN: Dispensary Owners - A Proposal For Getting Customers From r/CannabisThailand — www.reddit.com

For awhile now I've been thinking about how dispensary owners and the sub's users can have a mutually beneficial relationship.

What I've tried to avoid is allowing the sub to turn into a place where every person that has a weed connection spams the sub to the point where the sub becomes useless, which is why we don't allow any dispensaries to self-promote.

I think I might have come up with a solution.

In exchange for an exclusive discount (I think 10% - 20% is fair) for r/CannabisThailand members, dispensaries will get their listing in the wiki highlighted and we'll create a "Recommended Dispensaries" section in the wiki to raise awareness of dispensaries that are willing to offer fellow members a discount.

That's where I got stuck in the past. How to keep it just to sub members and not have some discount code floating around that gets posted all over social media.

What I recently figured out is that the AutoMod can be used to respond to anyone that types in a specific phrase. AutoMod will then send that person a DM with a prepared message.

For example, if someone is looking to buy some weed they can leave a comment in any post with a specific phrase like "crunchy buds" (that's not a real phrase so no point trying it) and the AutoMod will DM them a discount code that they can give to participating dispensary owners to verify that they're a member of the sub.

We can change the discount every week or every month and alert dispensary owners to the change so if the discount code leaks out, it will only be good for a limited time.

If you have an interest, please DM me and we can work out the details.

submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

How Quickly Will Biden Move on Cannabis? — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

President Biden's Cannabis Commitment Could Have 'Tremendous International Impact' If It Is Moved From A Schedule 1 Controlled Substance — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

Hey, I was speaking with a friend today and they mentioned that’s some he knows is planning to go to Thailand to open dispensary. He isn’t Thai, is that even possible? What are the basics of opening one? — www.reddit.com

Does anyone know ?

submitted by /u/Slow_Chocolate_6117 [link] [comments]

Popeye's Spinach — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

Is Thailand Becoming The Next Go-To Destination For Cannabis Lovers? — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/CannabisThailandMod [link] [comments]

honest and decent price vendors — www.reddit.com

Greenbank store Well priced buds, easy and a pleasure to communicate with, delivery was pretty fast also. Will definitely be using them again.

Line: GreenBankShop https://shop.line.me/@greenbankshop

Stickythai Easy to communicate with, good range of buds, detailed information on the product, delivery was fast. Will definitely be using them again Also.

Line: @310jtqfe https://lin.ee/nzIFlqk

Thought I would post this for people looking for a cheaper option without sacrificing on quality.

submitted by /u/P00_MAN [link] [comments]

Creating cannabis cart business in Thailand — www.reddit.com

Hi, Is it possible to setup a business and import US D9 distillate to create and distribute cannabis carts in Thailand?

Or is there any domestic extractors creating Distillate in Thailand currently?

Any info will be greatly appreciated! Thanks

submitted by /u/ket_legs [link] [comments]

best indica on this island — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/tastefunny [link] [comments]

Red String Thai Weed , Let's Discuss Why it's More Fragrant than Green Crack or Brick Weed submitted by /u/ChissWiz [link] [comments]

Grower's Corner

The outdoor area is ready, balcony is full of Autos, and the tent is getting started.. Happy days submitted by /u/bonsaiwarrior [link] [comments]

is she starting to flower? or should I say it? is that a pollensack in the last picture? — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/nbk_- [link] [comments]

Quality CBD strain seeds.. anybody have a hookup within Thailand? — www.reddit.com

Looking to grow some CBD plants so I can make my own oil. Any recommendations for seeds?

submitted by /u/bonsaiwarrior [link] [comments]

Best grown flower with the highest trichome production — www.reddit.com

This question is for growers. I've grown some strains that have had little trichomes produced and others that just pack them on even at an early stage of flowering. My question is, what have you grown that had the most trichome output? Mine to this date was Banana purple punch from Fastbuds.

submitted by /u/SinisterDamned [link] [comments]

Growing in Thailand — www.reddit.com submitted by /u/2tall4r3ddit [link] [comments]

should I remove this? submitted by /u/nbk_- [link] [comments]

Cover Photo by Ryan Lange on Unsplash