Niagara-on-the-Lake will soon boast the largest legal marijuana facility in the world, with one million square feet of greenhouses on Concession 5 to be in production by next summer, when recreational pot is expected to be legalized by the federal government.
About one third of that space is already operational at Tweed Farms, which converted a facility that grew peppers and eggplant into a Health Canada-licensed commercial medical marijuana operation, opening in 2014 with production limited to 35,000 square feet.
By October 2015, its licence allowed for up to 350,000 square feet for production, including growing, trimming, curing and storage.
The current expansion includes the purchase of a 458,000 square foot greenhouse next door, previously used to grow flowers, and a 212,000 square foot new build on the original property. Also included is more space for drying rooms and an upgraded laboratory.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake facility is a subsidiary of Canopy Growth, which owns several others either in production or in the construction stage: one each in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick, a total of five in Ontario, and plants in Denmark, Germany, Brazil, Chili, Australia and Spain.
Of the 200,000 registered medical marijuana customers in Canada, 60,000 of them are Canopy Growth clients – a sizable market share, says Jordan Sinclair, Canopy’s communications director.
But the company is now positioning itself to hold a major share “on any cannabis market,” he says, including recreational pot in Canada and the “newly emerging” medical international markets.
Canopy Growth has every reason to feel confident it will be a supplier of recreational marijuana in Canada once it’s legalized as expected by July 2018, he says.
“The source will be licensed growers, and we think it will be those who are licensed right now.”
At a meeting last week in Moncton with the New Brunswick ministers of health and finance, Canopy Growth signed a memorandum to sell the province $40 million of cannabis in the first year following the legalization of recreational marijuana, he said.
“It looks like it will be regulated at the federal level, and the province will source it from those already licensed. This is our business model, our bread and butter,” said Sinclair.
“There is no indication it will come from any other source.”
In NOTL, the greenhouses recently purchased are being “fine-tuned,” and should be in production “fairly quickly,” although the expansion project on the original property will take a little longer.
Health Canada is “already ramping up” the process of licensing to have an increased supply to meet the recreational market, he said, and those who have infrastructure in place to grow medical marijuana are in a better position to meet the increased demand.
“Getting a new licence is easier when you’re already licensed.”
credit:420intel.com
