What is streaming?
Streaming is a business model commonly found in the mining sector that has huge potential for the cannabis industry.
Basically, marijuana streaming allows companies to pay upfront for a portion or even all of a producer’s future harvest. This means that producers will be able to gain the much-needed capital to fuel their rapid growth in the hopes of meeting the soaring demand that legalization will bring in Canada in 2018.
According to some estimates, the space Canada has for licensed medicinal marijuana production is only one tenth of what will be needed to meet the demand of legal, recreational users. Marijuana streaming aims to help solve this issue.
Why?
Canadian cannabis producers have faced considerable hurdles and roadblocks when it comes to securing loans and other financing when compared to many other industries, as Canadian banks can be notoriously conservative when compared to other countries.
Although society’s attitudes towards marijuana has grown increasingly more and more progressive over the years and decades, there is still a lingering stigma and perception of risk that makes it harder for producers in Canada to obtain loans and capital through traditional means.
What’s Next?
As marijuana goes mainstream, streaming is an excellent opportunity that is seen as being mutually beneficial for both parties, and it’s another option to raising equity, going public, or even crowdsourcing. We are in an age of innovation and start-ups, after all.
When it comes to marijuana streaming, it should be no surprise that there are some companies already doing it in Canada, such as Canopy Rivers Corp. and Cannabis Wheaton.
In this ever-changing landscape, marijuana streaming companies that sign streaming deals with producers now may end up with considerable control over distribution and retail of numerous brands in the future once cannabis is legalized.