Cannabis Growers Dealing With a Range of Issues Heading Into 2022
November 4, 2021 
The cannabis industry is just one segment of the horticulture market facing supply chain issues heading into 2022. Greenhouse Grower recently caught up with Morgan Fox, Media Relations Director for the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), to talk more about the supply chain, as well as other issues greenhouse cannabis growers may be facing.
Greenhouse Grower (GG): What are the most notable supply chain issues growers are facing?
Fox: Our NCIA committees are hearing from a lot of different sectors of the industry about delays, including people that are actively involved in cultivation, and also with facility builds and designs. Packaging is also a big issue.
I know that we’ve seen a lot of growers who are converting space over to greenhouse cannabis, and a lot of them have put that on hold or at the very least looking at stretching out their builds.
At the same time, mindfulness of energy usage is becoming much more prevalent among cultivators and facilities designers. There’s a lot of effort being made in the industry to find ways to be more efficient and using as little energy as possible.
GG: As you move into next year, what are some of the other big-picture topics business owners need to monitor?
Fox: I think that every market has issues with supply and demand, and some are experiencing supply shortages, while others are experiencing oversupply. California, for example, has a tremendous amount of oversupply. As bigger companies started getting into the industry and putting in massive greenhouses in industrial and undeveloped rural areas, it’s creating some pain points.
GG: What are some of the resources an organization like yours might be able to provide to growers as they plan ahead?
Fox: Addressing some of the environmental pain points as early as possible, even in the design stage, is a great idea, largely because it’s much more efficient to do this in the early stages. Over time, it can actually end up saving you money as well as being a selling point for your products. Consumers are getting increasingly concerned about the impact of their products. We have the first set of an environmental law handbook that we put together last year, and we’re in the process of working with a collaborative working group made up of members from a variety of different disciplines within the cannabis space to identify additional areas where improvements can be made in a way that’s beneficial to cultivators as well as designers.
GG: Is there anything else you wanted to mention?
Fox: Anybody that’s involved in cultivation should really pay attention to the direction that federal legislation and eventual regulations are going and get involved in the political process so that you can have input. Many of these things are going to be very impactful for the cannabis industry, overall, but particularly things involving supply chain, whether it be federal regulations or EPA issues. Over the next couple years it will be important to pay attention to those issues and use your voice and political power.
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