In Bangkok these days, it’s hard not to notice the weed dispensaries — catering to tourists — that have multiplied since the government decriminalised the drug last year.
Although no one knows what kind of regulations the nation’s newly elected leadership will usher in, cannabis industry experts said the rules will most likely give investors more clarity and raise the bar to market entry in a way that benefits businesses with the best domestic supply chains. An obvious draw for investors is that Thailand’s cannabis industry pairs nicely with a prime source of customers: tourists, of whom there were nearly 40 million annually before the pandemic, and who are now starting to return in big numbers. Growers say that tourists, not locals, are their primary target market.
Foreign and Thai investors are piling into the market anyway. Precise investment data is scarce, but Lucksipha says some companies have built expensive indoor farms across Thailand with investment from the US, Europe, Australia, Russia and Singapore, among other places.Several cannabis entrepreneurs say they expect prices to stabilise once there is regulatory clarity and that the Thai government would not dare destroy an industry with significant economic potential.
On a larger scale, Advanced Canna Technologies, an Israeli company that has worked on cannabis farms in the US and elsewhere, recently opened a $3 million, 2000-square-metre indoor farm in Bangkok with a local partner and funding from Singaporean investors. CEO Or Engler says the plan is to begin harvesting about 120 kilograms of dried flowers a month, starting in October, and to become a “serious” long-term player in the Thai market, even if retail weed prices fall further.