Copperstate Farms in Snowflake, AZ, is the third largest combined cannabis operation in North America, and the continent’s largest legal cannabis greenhouse operation. (Photo Courtesy – Copperstate Farms)
As the cannabis industry continues its evolution, North America-based growing operations are scaling up across multiple states, and consolidation at the grower level — especially in Canada, where cannabis is already federally legal — remains robust.
Our inaugural list today represents just over 25,852,000 square feet of cannabis production, with the top half of the list comprising roughly 21,041,000 square feet combined.
List Insights
Thirteen of our Top 20 growers — about 65% of the list — produce cannabis in a traditional greenhouse during some aspect of production, with many of the operations leveraging each production setting (outdoor, greenhouse, and fully controlled environment, or warehouse growing) throughout the year.
According to the data, the largest North American grower producing cannabis exclusively in a greenhouse is Arizona’s Copperstate Farms at nearly 2 million square feet, while February’s cover story subject, Glass House Farms in Santa Barbara, CA, is reportedly the largest cannabis greenhouse in the Golden State currently with two greenhouses coming in at a combined 500,000 square feet.
The fifth -ranked grow on our list, Los Suenos Farms, which is mostly field grown with a small greenhouse (currently the largest outdoor cannabis farm in Colorado) was acquired in 2019 by Denver-based cannabis conglomerate Medicine Man Technologies.
A couple other notable entrants are Village Farms up in Delta, British Columbia, where tenant growers rent commercial greenhouse space, producing vegetable and other food crops right alongside cannabis. And down in the number 20 spot is Harvest Health & Recreation, which is notable in that the multi-state operation produces cannabis across 8 U.S. states.
Of course, it bears noting that 2019 was a tough year in general for large, multi-site cannabis operations. Canopy Growth, one of Canada’s largest vertically integrated cannabis operations, recently acknowledged as much. The legal cannabis giant announced the shuttering of 3 million square feet of greenhouse space in British Columbia and the layoff of 500 employees back in February.
Published: June 24, 2020
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