MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Cannabis production has begun again at a formerly-mothballed production facility northwest of Cremona previously owned by Aurora Cannabis.
Nearly two years into its 20-year lease of the property, CannaPharmaRX reported last week that its first crops were harvested on Aug. 10 and Sept. 11 with additional harvests planned for Oct. 21 and Nov. 9.
The company was originally incorporated in the state of Colorado in August 1998 as Network Acquisitions, Inc. Following several reincarnations, the company now has several Canadian holdings and an office in Calgary.
According to a Nov. 17 United States Securities and Exchange Commission filing, no sales from the production facility have occurred to date but plans are in the works to supply an Israeli company with cannabis biomass.
Health Canada issued CannaPharmaRX a cultivation licence in December 2022. By February of 2023, the company entered into a supply agreement with Y.S.A. Holdings Ltd., an Israeli corporation, whereby CannaPharmaRX will supply 450 kilograms of dried flowers and dried trim per annum to Y.S.A. over a two-year period.
According to the filing, CannaPharmaRX anticipates sales from the production facility in the fourth quarter of 2023, pending receipt of Good Agricultural Practices certification from the Israeli Medical Cannabis Agency, commonly referred to as IMC-GAP certification.
The company anticipates receipt of the certification before Dec. 31, 2023.
“Expected revenues for both initial harvests, if sold in their entirety, is forecasted at $643,000. The third and fourth harvest planned in Q4 have similarly forecasted revenues,” the company’s filing stated.
Aurora Cannabis announced plans in June 2020 to close down operations at a number of facilities, including the 55,200-square foot Aurora Mountain production facility northwest of Cremona.
The Cremona-area property was Aurora Cannabis's first facility and was completed in 2015. Sitting on 153 acres, the facility is about a 55,200-square foot, 6,000-kilogram-per-year plant.
The Aurora facility was billed as the world's first-ever custom-built cannabis grow site. At the peak of production, 150 people were employed there.
Meanwhile, the former Candre cannabis production facility in Sundre and the Element facility to the north of Sundre in Clearwater County which both went bust in recent years, still sit vacant.
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