Cannacurio #117: Manufacturing Licensing Recap Q2 2025

Background

In the last of our midyear recaps, we turn to manufacturing, the least volatile of the three activities we cover. At Cannabiz Media we classify a manufacturer as a license-holder who processes cannabis-infused products, such as edibles or concentrates, but does not cultivate or sell to customers. These licenses are issued less frequently than cultivation or retail licenses.  

However, they serve as important assets for companies because the products are often powerful brands. These brands, unlike license assets, can cross state lines and help well established companies thrive and build market share. They are also useful for the license holder as these facilities can be used for white label production – therefore expanding the value of the asset. 

Asper usual, Manufacturing licenses were the smallest category in terms of new license issuance. In Q2, there were 235 new licenses issued across 16 states. This is up 34% from 175 in Q1.

Key Points

• 235 new manufacturing licenses were issued in Q2 2025, up from 175 in Q1 2025.
• New Mexico led the leaderboard with 91 with New York in second at 68.
• 16 states issued licenses for this activity in Q2 2025, up from 15 in Q1 2025.

The following graphs shows that new licenses are added within in a pretty tight range from 39 to 96 with an average of 74.5 new licenses per month.

Two states drove these numbers in the last quarter with New Mexico and New York accounting for almost 70% of the new licenses for the quarter.

And here is the overall leaderboard for active manufacturing licenses in the US:

Many early states like Washington, California, Colorado and Oregon populate this top 10 list.

Conclusion

Manufacturing remains the most stable of the three primary license types. Each month about 75 new licenses are issued across the country. The biggest decline in these licenses occurs, predictably, in Oklahoma which has shed 87 licenses so far this year. We do expect to see a host of new licenses as Minnesota comes on line and we’ll report on those in our Q3 posts.

Author

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has managed product, marketing, and sales while overseeing complex multijurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental, and human resource markets.  

At Cannabiz Media, Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators across the globe as he and his team gather corporate, financial, and license information to track the people, products, and businesses in the cannabis economy.  

Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from theKellogg School at Northwestern University.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up-to-date on these and other new licenses through our newsletters, alerts, and reports modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these weekly reports delivered to your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo for more information on how to access the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform yourself to dive further into this data.

Cannacurio is a regular column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive license data platform. Catch up on Cannacurio posts and podcasts for the latest updates and intel. 

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