Skip to content
Article

The battle for Australian-grown cannabis: quality vs global price wars

Sep. 02, 2024 by SOMAÍ Pharmaceuticals

There is a buzz around Australia about “Made in Australia” products, including cannabis. Every country should be proud of its local cannabis culture that has sometimes existed since ancient times. Consumers and municipalities should always seek to support local cultivators who bring their hard work and craft to cannabis patients. Australia is home to a few really great growers and extract manufacturers who operate under Australian GMP standards, have invested more than just money, and have dedicated their time and skills to making the best cannabis they can.

Market Challenges: The Declining Presence of Australian-Grown Cannabis

But for the locals, the  market statistics don’t reflect the buzz, showing that just shy of 40% of the medical cannabis market is comprised of Australian-grown flower. There could be many causes, and it’s generally difficult to speculate nor understand the true absorption. 

The cannabis business is tough; no matter how great the company is, nobody is a billionaire. Early-stage countries tend to get many kinds of entrepreneurs who see cannabis as a great industry, and in the early days, investors do, too. Over time, the reality is generally sobering, with increased competition and slower-than-expected growth. Experienced management that has seen many cannabis cycles would have helped many startup companies no longer in business. 

The Impact of Global Imports on Local Australian Producers

Australia’s labor and cost of living are expensive compared to many medical cannabis exporting regions like South America and South Africa, while the price of medical cannabis is getting lower. Even in mature countries like Canada, the prices are so low and despite similarly high costs, the efficiencies and skill levels are extremely  high after six years of no fresh capital and market price collapse. It’s hard for the newer locals who need extra support to grow and compete at the levels other skilled growers from broader global markets can. 

The “Australian-Made” Dilemma: Imports and Misleading Claims

It is nearly impossible for Australian products to remain competitive in their own market because imports enter Australia with few restrictions from countries worldwide. These lower-operational-cost countries can make both flower and extract APIs cheaper than other high-cost markets, including Australia, so compound pharmacists and huge white-label brands go to these markets for cheaper products. 

Some white-label brands in Australia even claim they are Australian-made when in reality, their initial imports to Australia are from a low-cost production hub. Additionally, a few extract brands that formulate in Australia with imported extracts even claim to be Australian-made, as if mixing the product in the facility somehow erases the fact that the extract is foreign-bought. Clearly, such practices do not exemplify the intention of the “Made in Australia” claim to support local cultivators and preserve a cannabis culture that may be smaller than global markets but is still vital to protect and support. Even if claiming Australian know-how equates to being Australian-made — which it does not — such Australian operators would also need to defend how their limited product knowledge could possibly be an advantage against countries like the United States with two decades of legal growing, extracting and watching consumer preferences in a $33.6 billion market

Detractors claim that buying non-local API and then formulating and filling is a step away from being a compound pharmacy product with a different label. Regardless of merit, these claims don’t help regional producers find their foothold in their own markets.

Navigating Price Pressures: Global Lessons

Sometimes, executives lose sight of culture and quality while pursuing profit. Low-cost producing countries are essential to the global community, but chasing the next-lowest price for cannabis oil, for example, doesn’t always help patients, especially if the oil’s API additive changes regularly, if their product selections are all different APIs, or if the availability is only mixed trim of flower blends instead of single strains.

Can Australia Maintain a High-Quality Standard at Affordable Prices?

Higher standard EU-GMP products and flower are much harder to secure in Australia because the prices in Australia are so low compared to European Union prices, and the cost of importation is much higher than simply trucking it to the next country. Many EU companies stay out of Australia because it isn’t as profitable as Germany’s market — which now has imports up 51% after cannabis was removed from the narcotics list, and they have massive shortages because of it. So, Australia’s lax rules enable import from just about anywhere, but the lack of the highest quality EU-GMP products causes white-label Australian brands to seek the next cheapest country since quality standards for import are low. 

Additionally, this model doesn’t help the patients and requires local groups to provide better-quality products that normally don’t get to Australia due to lowest-price decision-making. Of course, the indoor Canadian cannabis industry has one of the best global standards right now, as its pricing on many great flower and extract products has become the lowest price for any country in the game, but it doesn’t support “Made in Australia” goals.

Prices for finished products keep coming down, and they come down fast, which is no surprise to cannabis executives who have navigated markets like the U.S. and Canada. In fact, sometimes no bottom seemed in sight until recently in markets like Canada, which appears to have hit rock bottom of profitability with super thin staff and c-suite executive cuts. Meanwhile, Australian operators seem to be keeping big organizational structures intact through price compressions and improved margins via cheaper imports and squeezing cultivators. Eventually, and the time seems now, there is no more squeezing.

EU-GMP: The Gold Export Standard That Australian GMP Can’t Meet

None of these price strategies help the regional producer fight for their place in the local cannabis market. Even the exports out of Australia are minimal. It is challenging to even enter Europe, as an example, because Australian GMP is a world away from the gold standard globally recognized EU-GMP medical cannabis, which can be sold to any country that allows it. Locals become reconciled to exporting mostly flower and a few extract APIs to New Zealand, the EU, small compound pharmacists and a few distributors that may want to work with Australian-grown flower, even though most are seeking Canadian products (which is roughly 81% of all imports) at a much lower price. Accordingly, a few local cultivators and manufacturers must stay local and fight for their space with increased importation and fewer export possibilities without EU-GMP certification.

Innovation and Quality: The Path Forward for Australian Producers

Australia has much to be proud of for having the number one most diverse product offerings in medical cannabis globally. They may even be spoiled and don’t realize how lucky they are compared to every other market. Germany is a much bigger market with fewer strains and a few dozen extracts; some markets have only a few Bedrocan flower options. Selection is key, and local producers hold the future of more advanced products and great cultivated flower. Regional producers must bridge the gap of differentiating high-quality products that cannot get to Australia, the low-cost countries that are dumping into Australia (even Israel went after Canadian cannabis dumping) and the patients that deserve the best.

Originally published in Cannabiz.