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Thai flower in Australia: a tale of two contrasting worlds

Aug. 11, 2025 by SOMAÍ Pharmaceuticals
  • It seems everyone is either queuing up to buy Thai flower or to invest directly in the country’s cultivation sector. And as Somai chairman and interim CEO Michael Sassano argues, the rapid growth has created a market of varying quality and ethics

Australia was the first global market to get a taste of Thai flower. The rumour mill is abuzz with local producers protecting their turf — rightly so – and white labels are excited to pick up large volumes of flower at incredibly low prices.

There is some truth behind every rumour. But this story is one of two different worlds.

The Thai cannabis industry is poised to take the world by storm

Thailand has developed at an incredibly fast pace. In just three years, it became a $1.3 billion USD market with one of the largest cultivation and dispensary networks ever envisioned.

Inside the country’s expansive cannabis market you can find products and suppliers from every facet of the cannabis world. After all, Thailand has a massive culture of farming, cannabis, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with great cost savings to attract investment from all over.

Wealthy growers lead the Thai cannabis industry

Wealthy Thai conglomerates have invested heavily in cannabis. Either for business or a little ego, these groups want to own a piece of the cannabis landscape and build something special. 

Surrounding their core teams are good manufacturing practices (GMP)-certified pharmaceutical management, which is required to comply with the highest level of global pharmaceutical cannabis.

These cannabis professionals are serious, and they want the best. They are buying California genetics and flying in California growers. They own labs, dispensaries, doctors’ groups, and businesses heavily tied to the local Thai politics and business ecosystem. 

These wealthy growers envision a future where Thailand’s cannabis market develops infrastructure to scale and service the growing local market, global markets, and the impending Asian market.

These growers are high-tech and conform to the highest European Union Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP) standards.

They also boast professional websites and branding that appeal to global communities.

Entrepreneurial cultivators

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of entrepreneurial growers in Thailand. Locals and foreigners alike have come to Thailand in a green rush, bringing branding and local flavour.

Their grows are large and small, from high-tech operations to humble hoop tents. Every growth style has appeared in Thailand as people come to trade their hard work for a common goal of making good bud and creating a better life. 

US growers sick of high taxes, Canadian growers getting a higher price for their products in Thailand than in Canada, brands looking to find the next frontier, and every other type of cannabis entrepreneur have landed in Thailand. 

Let’s face it, who hasn’t thought of living in Thailand? And what better way than to grow cannabis. The attraction of cannabis and Pacific Asian life is massive. 

Some of these entrepreneurial groups will reach global markets, but most will never obtain the right licensing and staffing to do so. 

The dark side of Thai flower in Australia

Which brings us to the dark side: unlicensed and unregulated groups that find their way into local and international markets.

Australia is now getting its first taste of these products. 

Licensed operators are taking product from unlicensed growers and bringing it through their own grows and onto the market.

Brokers are selling sub-par flower at the lowest possible prices — lower than in Canada — to move volume. Brokers are pitching indoor quality, but is it indoor from a garage, from a converted bathroom, or a greenhouse? Nobody knows, including the white labels dumping this cheap flower.

It begs the question of why these unlicensed vendors are so desperate to get to Australia. 

The answer is simple. They cannot get to global markets with their current licensing, and passing through other grows isn’t permitted without certification of the seed to sale and grow delivering the finished products.

Elsewhere in the world, this prevents the dumping that is currently going on in Australia. 

This system, and the buyers willing to turn a blind eye, has created a cheap perception of Thai flower. It has caused worries about pesticides and hormones, though these adulterants would technically be seen on certificates of analysis.

Regardless, unlicensed grows finding their way into the cannabis market with cheap flower have many reputational and regulatory issues, and call into question the pharmaceutical qualification of implicated vendors. 

To be sure, there are amazing grows in Thailand who will exporting their product to Australia.

The best flower isn’t cheap, but it isn’t crazy expensive either.

Although there are multiple worlds in Thai cannabis, the best Thai growers always come with great branding and open disclosure so you can see the grows, the people behind the flower, their pride for the product they deliver to Australia and all the global markets.

Originally published in Cannabiz.