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New Brunswick cannabis producer shifts to micro licence

October 20, 2023 | David Brown

A cannabis producer in New Brunswick is scaling down to a micro licence, a move they hope will help save money in an increasingly competitive market.

Crystal Cure Inc., a cannabis producer in Shediac Cape, announced today that it has successfully downgraded its licences for cultivation and processing to micro licences.

Jonathan Wilson, CEO of Crystal Cure, says the decision was something he and others at the company had discussed for years, both as a way to lower the regulatory fees associated with their licences, as well as an acknowledgement of a shift in the market from large scale to small scale production.

Crystal Cure was being formed at a time when extremely large, publicly traded companies were setting the tone for facility design. Since then, many of these larger cannabis facilities have shut down, while the number of smaller micro producers has skyrocketed.

“There are many reasons why we made the change now, some that are positive, some not so much, Wilson tells StratCann. “For one, we acquired standard licences for cultivation and processing because originally, the company had huge, ambitious goals for expansion, like many others. But, like many others, those goals weren’t realistic on many fronts, so this is making things right in that regard.

“Secondly,” he adds, “like many producers, we’ve had to make some difficult decisions in order to survive the current market conditions. There are some savings to the operation that come with this change, allowing us to eliminate some costs that aren’t helping us, one of the biggest ones being the $23,000 annual regulatory fee that we will now save. Finally, being a micro fits our ideologies and methodologies far better than the term ‘standard’. Not to mention, most people already think we are a micro due to our size.”

While the annual regulatory fee for a standard cultivator or processor is $23,000, a micro is only $2,500.

Wilson says he wants to see more support for small producers, both from the government and the market in general. But despite the challenges the industry faces, he is still positive about the future.

“Although we’ve had to make very difficult decisions and sacrifices in order to survive, we are still here,” Wilson said in a company press release. “I know others that can’t say the same, unfortunately. We’ve taken this time to continue to perfect our craft and make some incredible changes to our strategy for the future that we wouldn’t have made if we had expanded as planned, years earlier. This change in licence type is the catalyst for exciting developments to come that will help the smaller end of this industry.”

Crystal Cure sells an array of cannabis flower as well as seeds.