WeedMD Confirms its Licensed and Scalable Outdoor Grow is Coming Online in Early June
GlobeNewswire•June 3, 2019
Fall 2019 Harvest to Provide Significant Low-Cost Biomass Input for its Extraction & Processing Hub
TORONTO, June 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WeedMD Inc. (TSX-V:WMD) (OTCQX:WDDMF) (FSE:4WE) (“WeedMD” or the “Company”), a federally-licensed producer and distributor of medical-grade cannabis, is pleased to confirm that following the receipt of Health Canada’s licence for outdoor cultivation, WeedMD will begin planting more than 20,000 cannabis plants during the week of June 10, 2019 at its Strathroy, Ontario site. The Company expects to be the first licensed producer in Canada to start growing cannabis outdoors. Outdoor grow readiness video here.
“We are leading the way and making history as the first Canadian LP expected to bring outdoor cultivation online,” said Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD. “We have a very experienced cultivation team led by our Chief Cannabis Officer Derek Pedro. This same team has successfully grown cannabis outdoors at scale for more than 10 years under Canada’s medical program. The 27-acres is primed and ready for our proven high-CBD and THC outdoor strains, which are already rooted and waiting to be planted.”
WeedMD also recently announced the transition of its Aylmer, Ontario facility into a cannabis extraction and processing hub. Read extraction news here. With the large volume of low-cost input material that the outdoor harvest will generate, the Company is positioned to process and market significant quantities of extracts and concentrates starting in Q4, 2019.
WeedMD Outdoor Cultivation:
Health Canada licence amendment secured on May 31, 2019
Phase I includes the first 27 of 100 available acres at its Strathroy property
Construction of fencing, security, irrigation and other required infrastructure is complete within a fully-funded $2 million budget
73 additional acres of production planned for Phase II in 2020 on the existing property
Municipal approval secured
Operational synergies with outdoor cultivation directly adjacent to WeedMD’s existing propagation operations within its licenced greenhouse facility
All infrastructure and staffing resources exist onsite with a proven team dedicated to the outdoor grow
WeedMD’s cultivation team brings significant experience growing cannabis outdoors locally
Selected strains proven to excel outdoors in southwestern Ontario
More than 20,000 plants already rooted in organic material and ready to be planted
Growing from rooted plants allows for higher yields, survival rates and consistency when compared to starting from seed
WeedMD Extraction Hub:
WeedMD is building on its experience in extract production, having processed oils onsite in Aylmer since June 2017
Aylmer site is fully licensed for cannabis oil production and sale
plans include four extraction lines in operation with the ability to process over 200,000 kgs of biomass annually
WeedMD will utilize various extraction methods in order to meet the demands of the market
Aylmer facility is being built to GxP* standards to support compliance for both domestic and international markets
WeedMD will provide formulation capabilities for wholesale and white label manufacturing
existing fully-licensed 26,000 sq. ft. facility is located on an expandable four-acre site wholly-owned by WeedMD
WeedMD will supply a sizeable quantity of input material for cannabis extraction from its large-scale greenhouse and also from its 27-acres of outdoor production from its Strathroy site
*GxP encompasses a broad range of compliance-related activities such as Good Laboratory Practices, Good Clinical Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices.
With a combined indoor and outdoor production footprint of over 5.2M sq. ft. and projected total annual output of 150,000 kgs of cannabis in 2020, the Company is well-positioned to become one of Canada’s largest cannabis producers.
