New Zealand’s Greenfern Industries (NZX: GFI) has a green light for its first commercial cannabis harvest from its new cultivation, drying and packaging facility in Taranaki.
Greenfern says it has met and exceeded the stringent NZ Minimum Quality Standards for the facility’s first cannabis crop.
“To be able to meet these very high standards on our first cultivation cycle in our brand-new facility is testament to all the hard work and research that our team have diligently put together over the last few years,” said GFI Managing Director Dan Casey. “We are really looking forward to finalising our first batch in preparation for export and look forward to even more wins in the near future.”
This harvest is being prepared for export to the EU and UK through its partner Ampyl Sciences. It’s been a long road for Greenfern to get to this point, which the company sees as the “starting line”.
“We will now capitalise on all of this hard work as we move forward with a laser focus on export revenue from our locally grown medicinal cannabis flower right here in the regions of rural Taranaki,” said Mr. Casey.
The first cultivation room in the new facility, housing around 300 cannabis plants at the time, was successfully commissioned in July this year. The initial harvest was modest; producing approximately 30kg of cannabis flower suitable for export under GFI’s existing offtake agreement with Ampyl Sciences.
Teething problems at the new facility have delayed availability of the second harvest; but when fully operational, a total of up to approximately 400-500kg of cannabis flower per year is expected.
Greenfern Industries is unique it that it owns its own hydroelectric power station on the Waingongoro River in Taranaki; situated adjacent to its research and indoor growing operation and processing facility. In addition to powering the facility, the company sells the surplus electricity generated. But according to an update released last month, revenue from electricity generation has been lower than forecast for the half year, mainly as the result of ongoing reliability issues with aging equipment.
“Work has been undertaken to repair and replace critical parts of the equipment, and testing and recommissioning will be undertaken as soon as river levels allow operation of the facility,” stated the company.
