New Zealand-based medical cannabis company Cannasouth has completed its Waikato-based growing facility to export pharmaceutical-grade cannabis flower in early 2022.
The company now expects its first commercial harvest in December 2021 from its joint venture partner, Cannasouth Cultivation Limited. Cannasouth Cultivation Limited has developed a next-generation controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) sealed greenhouse.
Exporting pharmaceutical-grade cannabis
According to Cannasouth Chief Executive Mark Lucas, the NZX listed company aims to produce up to 1,800kg of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis flower each year. He added that Cannasouth could scale the facility by four times, as demand requires.
“Current wholesale pricing estimates for quality medical cannabis flower ranges between NZ$3,500 and NZ$10,000 per kilogram, depending on the cannabinoid content, market, and quality standard achieved,” Mark Lukas said.
The CEO added that using a market price of NZ$4,500 per kilogram, phase one of their cultivation facility has the potential to generate nearly $8 million in annual revenue.
“Our innovative facility design will give us premium flower produced at a highly competitive production cost, while also greatly reducing our carbon footprint over indoor growing operations,” he added.
All along, New Zealand cannabis company Cannasouth has centered on developing facilities and processes that are Good Agricultural Collection Practices (GACP) and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliant. Lukas said that once their growing facilities are verified, they would be in a position to produce premium quality GACP/GMP compliant cannabis flower for the highest value export markets.
The first NZ company to export cannabis
Cannasouth is now poised to become New Zealand’s first company to export pharmaceutical-grade cannabis flowers to international markets with these advancements. Currently, there’s a strong demand for high-grade medical cannabis internationally.
Cannasouth has adopted the design of a growing facility used by Vera Cultivation, a Colorado-based grower that’s very competent in the USA cannabis flower market. The two companies have signed a service agreement that will see Vera support Cannasouth as it moves into commercial cultivation.
In addition to exporting pharmaceutical-grade cannabis flower, Cannasouth has a lineup of three imported medicines that it aims to supply to the New Zealand market. The medicines are currently under verification by the country’s Medicinal Cannabis Agency (MCA).
If approved, the products would give Cannasouth an “early mover” advantage in the New Zealand market, which is an additional revenue stream and valuable real-world market data.
“Cannasouth is focused on delivering returns to our investors by pursuing multiple opportunities to generate revenue. At the same time, we are working hard to deliver much-needed quality medicines to patients as quickly as possible while we continue to work on producing our own medicines here in New Zealand,” Mr. Lucas said.
