Ontario wants to sell more cannabis seeds

L’Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), the retail cannabis company run by the State of Ontario, has announced plans to sell a wide variety of cannabis seeds to gain even more market share on the black market.

OCS has signed agreements with two companies, Alberta-based micro-cultivation licensee ANC Cannabis and British Columbia-based ProgenyBio Agricultural Services, and is currently negotiating with several other companies to further expand its seed catalog. Currently, OCS sells only one variety of cannabis seed, Tweed's Bakerstreet (the strain Kush original), a product regularly out of stock.

Cannabis seeds are legally complicated to find in Canada, with most licensed producers focusing on selling flowers or by-products rather than seeds for self-cultivation. Potential customers therefore mechanically turn to historical seed banks, considered black market under the new era of Canadian cannabis legalization.

Despite being the largest legal cannabis market in the world, the Canadian industry still struggling to compete with the illegal market Some companies have launched discounted weed ranges to boost their competitiveness, but low prices and high quality continue to attract customers to illegal cannabis.

Ontario hopes to offer an alternative to black-market seeds. Seed sales could also be a boon for small, specialized companies to cover this segment neglected by the big players.