The Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) is giving some love to craft growers with the launch of a new designation aimed at helping raise the profile of offerings from small licensed producers.

Launching late last week, the new designation — as it stands, only for dried flower and pre-rolls — currently includes products from 20 licensed cannabis producers, according to Marijuana Business Daily.

It’s possible the new designation may help with also transitioning more customers from the legacy to licensed markets. The OCS’s third-quarter report estimated that legal cannabis sales have captured 40.3 per cent of the province’s recreational market, up from 36.2 per cent one quarter earlier.

The new designation comes with specific criteria meant to more clearly define what “craft” cannabis is. StratCann reported in December that plans were underway for designating “small batch” and “handcrafted” weed products.

OCS now reports that, indeed, the new craft designation will allow customers to find “the hand-crafted, small-batch flower” they’re looking for.

“All the dried flower and pre-rolls in this collection are hand-trimmed, hang-dried, hand-packaged and grown in a facility that produces less than 10,000 kg of dried cannabis (or equivalent) a year,” according to the OCS. That’s compared that to 600 kg potential annual output of a micro-producer, StratCann noted.

The hope is the new designation will offer greater reach for small producers given that the OCS is the sole online retailer in the province. / PHOTO BY STEFANAMER/GETTY IMAGES

“It may also be possible for producers to have an overall production of over 10,000 kg as long as the facility from which the craft product is derived does not exceed 10,000 kg, leaving room for the large manufacturers with multiple facilities to potentially take advantage of the craft designation,” noted information from Torkin Manes.

The hope is the new designation will offer greater reach for small producers given that the OCS is the sole online retailer in the province. As for retail stores, although Ontario got off to a sluggish start, the number of private licensed outlets has since exploded and recently leapfrogged Alberta.

Earlier this year, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced it would begin issuing as many as 120 Retail Store Authorizations monthly and the number of stores “authorized to open” as of mid-March was almost 700.

The OCS’s new craft designation will apply to producers and the organization’s wholesale operation. There will be no need for small licensed producers to pay for the designation, Shearer told Marijuana Business Daily. “In our product call, vendors will identify a submission as a craft candidate, after which it will be validated, whether it is or not, by our (quality assurance),” he explained.

It is possible the new OCS designation could be extended to product forms beyond dried flower and pre-rolls. / PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS/DARRYL DYCK

His hope is that private retailers will jump on board and adopt a similar category to help boost smaller producers, but that decision will be their own.

As for the future, Shearer said that it is possible the new OCS designation could be extended to product forms beyond dried flower and pre-rolls.

In a webinar this past January, the OCS reported that its “core assortment” program would be focused on ensuring popular products are consistently in stock while less popular ones may be removed. The roster will be reviewed every six months to reflect products consumers are consistently buying, Mugglehead Magazine reported at the time.

“Approximately 200 product SKUs (stock-keeping units) are set to be removed in the coming months, resulting from such products’ lack of sales or inconsistent inventory levels,” Torkin Manes added.