Village Farms Sees Early Success in Dutch Regulated Cannabis Trial

Village Farms International (VFF ) on September 15, 2026 welcomed the publication of the first-year findings from the Netherlands’ regulated cannabis program, a government experiment in which Village Farms Netherlands participates as one of ten producers licensed by the Dutch government to cultivate and distribute cannabis to participating coffeeshops. In a statement datelined Groningen, Netherlands, the company reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the program and to the Dutch communities in which it operates.

President and Chief Executive Officer Michael DeGiglio called the Dutch government’s effort a historic undertaking for regulated cannabis in Europe that deserves considerable praise. “Replacing a tolerated supply chain with a regulated one is not an easy task, but these first-year findings are an encouraging sign of early success,” he said. DeGiglio said the company is invested in the Netherlands as a long-term community partner and that its team remains committed to collaborating with local stakeholders to build a program that protects consumers and creates economic benefits for its local communities.

Orville Bovenschen, President of Global Operations, oversees operations for the company’s two Dutch facilities. Bovenschen said the company draws on decades of experience in controlled environment agriculture and regulated markets, with expertise in process innovation and product quality, compliance and responsible operations, and has applied those lessons while working closely with its local municipalities to meet the requirements of the new regulated market.

Bovenschen said the company is encouraged by the initial results and believes now is an appropriate time for the government to begin talking about ways to create stronger protections for consumers and longer-term certainty for the program. “We are supportive of revisions to packaging and labeling requirements to avoid consumer preferences shifting to high potency products, and also see benefits to further expansion of the program to combat the illicit market,” he said, adding that starting those conversations would give growers, coffeeshops and municipalities the confidence to plan and invest.

First-Year Evaluation Findings

The evaluation was conducted by the Trimbos Institute, Breuer&Intraval and RAND Europe, commissioned by the Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Datacentrum (WODC) for the Ministries of Justice and Security and of Health, Welfare and Sport. The Trimbos Institute’s summary of the findings was published on September 9, 2026. The experimental phase of the Experiment Gesloten Coffeeshopketen, better known as the wietexperiment, began on April 1, 2025 and will run for four years. Data from ten municipalities participating in the experiment are compared with data from ten comparison municipalities. A baseline measurement was carried out in 2022, and the current study is the first of four annual follow-up measurements, with data collection taking place largely between September 2025 and March 2026.

Under current Dutch cannabis policy, the sale of cannabis from coffeeshops is tolerated under strict conditions while cultivation and supply remain banned. According to the WODC, this leads to safety risks such as fire-hazardous illegal grow sites in residential areas and fuels crime, and because no quality standards apply, coffeeshop visitors do not know exactly what is in the cannabis, which can lead to health risks. The experiment is intended to reduce these problems.

The Trimbos Institute reported that coffeeshops in the intervention municipalities now offer more varieties of weed, hash and joints than at the baseline measurement, an increase stronger than in the comparison municipalities. New cannabis products such as edibles, vapes and concentrates are now available at a large share of coffeeshops in the intervention municipalities, and municipalities and prevention partners expressed concern about the very high THC percentages regularly listed on menus for these products.

Price development showed a mixed picture, according to the summary. The average menu price of weed in coffeeshops fell more strongly in the intervention municipalities than in the comparison municipalities, with nederwiet in particular becoming cheaper, while the average price of hash rose more strongly in the intervention municipalities. Prices of pre-rolled joints rose slightly in both groups.

The researchers found no indications so far that coffeeshop visiting has changed: the number of visitors and the frequency of visits remained stable, and no differences were found between intervention and comparison municipalities in frequency of use, the number of use days per month or the number of joints per use day. Some changes did appear in visitor preferences and purchasing behavior. In intervention municipalities, the share of visitors who reported mostly using weed rather than hash increased, and visitors rated the price-quality ratio of weed more positively than at the baseline measurement, a stronger increase than in the comparison municipalities. More weed was also bought per purchase transaction, while no such differences were found for hash. No clear changes were found in health, experienced well-being or problematic cannabis use, and the researchers state that the meaning of these changes cannot be unambiguously determined from this first set of monitor data.

The summary states there are as yet no convincing indications that the experiment has influenced livability or safety in the studied municipalities. Residents and people working near coffeeshops rated livability around coffeeshops with an average grade between 7.6 and 7.8, comparable to the baseline measurement and to the national average. Some respondents reported forms of nuisance, such as loitering, traffic pressure or noise; these reports occurred slightly more often in intervention municipalities, but the research provides an insufficient basis to attribute this directly to the experiment.

An illegal cannabis market continues to exist alongside the coffeeshops, and the researchers state that no conclusions can be drawn about its size. Consumers who buy cannabis outside the coffeeshop still cite mainly the lower price, an attractive price-quality ratio and the possibility of buying larger quantities as motives, and the main purchasing channels remain delivery services and dealers reachable by phone or messaging apps. Users still rate the quality of illegally purchased cannabis positively. The amount of hash bought per illegal transaction increased in intervention municipalities, which the summary states may be connected to the limited availability of regulated hash in the early phase of the experiment.

Interviews with involved parties indicate the closed chain has brought more transparency to the cannabis chain: municipalities, coffeeshop owners, growers and supervisors consult more often and have more information about the origin and production conditions of cannabis, and production, transport and sale more often follow standardized procedures. A key element is the track-and-trace system, with which products can be followed from cultivation to sale. Although users initially experienced the system as cumbersome and error-prone, many of those startup problems now appear to be resolved. In the first months, coffeeshop owners reported that the supply of regulated cannabis was limited, with the variety of products such as different types of hash falling short of expectations. The WODC described the first experiences as predominantly positive while noting the experiment had several startup problems.

Limitations and Next Steps

The researchers state that the period between the start of the experimental phase on April 1, 2025 and this follow-up measurement is too short to draw conclusions. Active enforcement of the mandatory sale of regulated hash began only on September 1, 2025, so a significant part of the research period still covered the transition to the new system. Longer-term effects on use, livability, safety and the illegal market therefore cannot yet be determined, and the researchers advise interpreting the results with caution. The WODC stated that no unambiguous effects of the experiment can be established on the basis of this measurement and that multiple measurements are needed to make statements about possible effects and policy implications.

An evaluation will be published in 2028, and the cabinet will decide on the continuation of the experiment in 2029. An independent Begeleidings- en Evaluatiecommissie, made up of scientists from different disciplines, supervises the monitoring studies and the evaluation and will present a final report to the government around the summer of 2028, according to the WODC.