Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. (TSXV:EMH) (OTCQX:EMHTF), through Emerald Health Botanicals Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary and a Licensed Producer under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, has submitted license applications to Health Canada for approval of two new growing sites. Emerald is preparing for the large-scale production of cannabis in anticipation of legalization of the adult-use cannabis market on July 1, 2018.
In September, Emerald filed an application to Health Canada for its Pure Sunfarms’ Delta, BC facility, which is a partnership with Village Farms (TSXV:VFF). This partnership combines Emerald’s extensive medical cannabis growing experience and broad portfolio of cannabis genetics with Village Farms’ many decades of greenhouse growing expertise and large-scale, quality, low-cost production of an array of plant products and a currently producing, highly efficient 25-acre, 1.1 million square feet greenhouse facility. Emerald and Village Farms are retrofitting this greenhouse from tomato growing into a configuration optimized for large-scale cannabis cultivation. With a key goal of the partnership to be a large, very low-cost cannabis producer, Pure Sunfarms also optioned from Village Farms an additional 3.7 million square feet of existing highly-efficient greenhouse space in the same Delta complex.
In October, Emerald submitted its application for its own Richmond, BC, facility, for which Emerald is initially constructing 150,000 square feet of hybrid indoor and greenhouse growing space to produce cannabis in conjunction with legalized recreational use. This 32-acre site can be expanded to 1 million square feet. This facility will also house extraction and other processing capabilities as Emerald pursues value-added downstream product development.
In early October, Health Canada granted approval of Emerald’s second site application related to its Saanich facility, which is currently producing medical cannabis for sale as dried flower and oils, and serves as Emerald’s research and product development facility. This additional 7,000 square feet site, which is adjacent to the existing site, will allow expansion of this operation, subject to receiving the necessary approvals from the District of Saanich.
“As a licensed producer that is currently operating exclusively in Canada, submitting these license applications to Health Canada is a vital step as we execute our expansion plans,” said Chris Wagner, Chief Executive Officer of EHT. “We have appreciated our working relationship with Health Canada, which has already allowed us to secure a second site license, and look forward to working with them through their review of these additional applications.”
By Anthony Varrell – technical420
