The Krill is Gone: Neptune to switch to cannabis oil production

Neptune Technologies & Bioressources is giving its Sherbrooke plant, the site of a deadly explosion five years ago, a new vocation, abandoning krill oil for cannabis oil. The switch will require a $5 million investment to convert its industrial park facilities.

The company’s board of directors has authorized the injection of this amount to adapt the plant to its new vocation and the detailed plan will be presented at a meeting in New York on November 28, it says. The presentation has been titled "The road to cannabis".

Neptune has discontinued its production and distribution of bulk krill oil, which was announced last summer, along with the lay-off of about 50 employees at its industrial park plant.

Faced with a declining market for krill oil, the company decided to sell its oil production division to the Norwegian company Aker Biomarine for US $34 million and will use the money gained by the transaction to start producing medicinal cannabis oil through the Green Valley Consortium formed last May with the Université de Sherbrooke and the DJB Group. Other development projects are also under study.

On November 8, 2012, an explosion rocked Neptune Technologies and Bioresources in the Sherbrooke industrial park, killing three employees and injuring 30 others.

In its second quarter financial statements for the period ending September 30, the company registered net income of $20 million compared to a net loss of $700,000 last year.