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Cannabis competes for talent and financing

Already coping with long-standing challenges such as foreign competition and thinning margins, greenhouse growers are facing added pressure from the rise of marijuana as a legal, commercial crop because it creates more competition for horticultural talent and higher profitability expectations for financing.

Michael DeGiglio, Village Farms’ chief executive warns, however, that picking off growers with higher pay will lead to a “scenario of disaster” in the future when cannabis profits may not be so lush. Both cannabis companies and traditional greenhouse growers have said they are being squeezed, for example, from Ontario’s 21-per-cent pay jump to $14 an hour. | READ MORE