Heritage Cannabis Holdings (CANN.C) put rubber to the road today when the Calgary-based company’s subsidiary, CannaCure, brought in the first cannabis harvest at its Fort Erie location.
Back in November, CannaCure inked an agreement with CannTrust (TRST.T) for the genetics used in this grow.
Heritage chairman and interim CEO, Clint Sharples, illustrated the harvest’s impact on the company while updating investors on 2019 objectives:
“We’re proud to share this important milestone with our community, stakeholders and industry partners. This harvest signals our advancement in our production objectives and our continuous growth within cannabis industry. I would like to thank our cultivation team who worked hard over these past 10 weeks, including the holidays, to ensure our first crop was a success. We are on schedule to meet our 2019 production targets and expect multiple successful harvests in the coming months when CannaCure and PhyeinMed are producing at full capacity.”
With its first harvest successfully under its belt, CannaCure intends to plant the second grow using the same genetics obtained from CannaCure for the original crop.
Plants are expected to be placed within a grow room environment over the next few weeks.
Heritage and CBDs
Today’s news follows in the wake of Heritage’s announcement in December 2018 that it had closed its acquisition of Purefarma, a Kelowna, B.C.-based manufacturer and wholesale processor of CBD oils.
Purefarma has an existing supply agreement for 1,600 acres of hemp through its partner farmers, which has been harvested and made ready for the 2019 consumer market.
Heritage plans to continue growing its CBD segment to meet the dizzying global demand of hemp oil extracts which, according to the Brightfield Group, a leading CBD and cannabis market research firm, is expected to be worth USD$22 billion by 2022.
As such, it is anticipated that both CannaCure and PhyeinMed will apply for their own CBD and THC oil extraction licenses at a future date.
Amended production licensing
On the production front, both CannaCure and PhyeinMed announced the receipt of license updates at the end of 2018, expanding their ability to sell cannabis beyond what is outlined in the standard cultivation license.
According to Health Canada regulations, a standard cultivation license allows a company to sell wholesale to a provincial distribution channel or to a company holding a processor license.
The updated license allows:
- The sale and distribution of dried cannabis, fresh cannabis, cannabis plants and cannabis plant seeds to any qualified license holders
- The sale and distribution of cannabis plants and cannabis plant seeds to a holder of a license for a nursery
- The sale and distribution of cannabis plants and cannabis plant seeds, that are cannabis products to: a holder of a license for sale, or a person authorized to sell cannabis
Pieces are falling into place for Heritage and today’s production milestone adds necessary legitimacy to the company’s pursuit of its mandate: fully integrating its oil, flower and hemp interests.
What does 2019 hold?
The next 12 months will prove very important for Heritage as it needs to solidify its CBD offering, expand its sales and distribution network as well as facilitate the increase of cannabis production by its subsidiaries to capacity.
To accomplish this, Heritage will need to secure capital from a gun-shy cannabis investor base and they’ll need to do that with real progress, not promises.
The new year has been good to Heritage, up $0.05 since the end of December; its share price closed at $0.215 today.
Heritage Cannabis Holdings currently has 375,786,109 issued and outstanding shares with a market cap of $84.55 million.
–Gaalen Engen
Full Disclosure: Heritage Cannabis Holdings is an Equity.Guru marketing client.