Cannabis Industry Breaks Ground in Baker County
New York-based Acreage Holdings, one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis operators in the United States, has broken ground in Baker County for its first production and cultivation facility in Florida. The Sanderson location will be an automated, climate-controlled facility for growing cannabis that will support Acreage’s dispensaries in the state.
Acreage Holdings general manager Rhonda Katz said Florida’s warm climate and welcome from county officials made Baker County an ideal location for the company’s first Florida facility. The creation of up to 100 jobs for the county will bring opportunities for more agriculture-based positions such as growth specialists, extraction personnel and maintenance.
Since the vote to legalize in 2016, the medical marijuana market in Florida currently ranks second and is projected to earn $1.6 billion in revenue by 2020.
The expansion of Acreage into the Florida market shows the exponential growth and opportunities in agribusiness for rural economic development in counties like Baker as well as other targeted industries as medical marijuana continues to grow in the health and biomedical, advanced manufacturing and logistics industries.
The legal American cannabis industry has created more than 200,000 full-time jobs, with 9,500 more to be added alone in Florida.
For more information, read the article in Jacksonville Daily Record.