The largest licensed producer of medicinal cannabis in Canada has purchased additional land next to its existing greenhouses to expand to more than double the size in less than a year.
Canopy Growth Corp’s subsidiary, Tweed Farms Inc. expects to lay out around $21 million to do property upgrades. Their farm is a flower farm that was purchased for $9 million. In October, Canopy plans to start building fences and installing security cameras.
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The legalization of recreational marijuana usage is set for just under a year from now. This is driving licensed producers to be in a heightened frenzy as they hurry to supply what’s expected to be a significant shortage.
Licensed to produce 31,000 kilograms of cannabis and cannabis related products, Canopy’s aiming to triple that number by July 2018, the deadline set by the federal government to make weed legal across the board.
This new deal gives Canopy 450,000 square feet of greenhouses that can be immediately joined with the existing 350,000 square foot facility. They are also adding another 200,000 square feet worth of additional greenhouses on the existing property.
250,000 square feet alone should be able to annually produce 10,000 kilograms of cannabis. With an average of (C)$8 a gram, that means that the single large greenhouse could pull in (C)$80 million per year.
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The company is also expanding its headquarters to a former chocolate factory in Ontario and are creating indoor grow spaces in Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.
Out of the approximate 200,000 medical marijuana patients in Canada, Canopy covers around a third of the market; they expect some 3 million Canadians to use legal, non-medicinal pot next year.
On the tourism and export fronts, they are expecting that within three years around half of the cannabis revenue will come from visitors and businesses outside of Canada.
Canopy has been exporting medical cannabis products to German pharmacies for over a year, has a majority stake in a Chilean medical marijuana company seeking final licensing and has a 10 percent stake in an Australian company. It has also partnered with two Brazilian medical marijuana facilities. Federal prohibition has so far kept them away from the US market.
