NOTL pot farm soon to be world’s largest
Niagara-on-the-Lake will soon boast the largest legal marijuana facility in the world, with 90,000 square metres 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 3,150 square metres.
By October 2015, its licence allowed for up to 31,500 square metres for production, including growing, trimming, curing and storage.
The current expansion includes the purchase of a 41,220-squaremetre greenhouse next door to its operations previously used to grow flowers, and a 19,080-square-metre 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 other marijuana farms 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, Chile, Austrailia and Spain.
Of the 200,000 registered medical marijuana customers in Canada, 60,000 of them — a sizable market share — are Canopy Growth clients, says communications director Jordan Sinclair.
The company is now positioning itself to hold a major share “on any cannabis market,” he says, including the recreational market in Canada and “newly emerging ” international medical 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 New Brunswick ministers of health and finance, Canopy Growth signed a memorandum to sell that province $40 million of cannabis in the first year following the legalization of recreational marijuana, Sinclair says.
New Brunswick and Ontario are the only two provinces so far to announce their plans to sell the product. Ontario citizens will be able to purchase it through 150 standalone LCBO -run stores, or through a government-run online shop.
“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,” says Sinclair.
“There is no indication it will come from any other source.”
In Niagara-on-the-Lake, 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, Sinclair says, and companies that 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.”