Canadian company, Tilray, has received the necessary licences to operate a marijuana growing and processing facility near Coimbra.
The company is to invest around €30 million in a 'medical cannabis'* operation and has the go-ahead to import the necessary seeds and clones and to cultivate them.
The company is to establish its facility in Cantanhede, to the north of Coimbra, where staff will will grow, process and package medical cannabis products for distribution across the European Union.
Tilray's CEO Brendan Kennedy, says the licences are the culmination of a two-year search for a location from which to supply cannabis to Europe, adding that Tilray estimates the market could grow to 10 million patients and generate as much as €40 billion per year in revenue, when it is legalised across the EU.
“We’re seeing massive demand from Germany so we needed to build a large facility to meet that demand and we needed to get it up and running very quickly,” said Kennedy, adding that “Portugal seemed like the ideal location to grow plants.”
Kennedy said Tilray is the first company to win a licence in Portugal to grow cannabis containing the active ingredient THC.
Kennedy added that Tilray's first phase is for outdoor growing fields, 10,000 m2 of greenhouses and associated processing facilities, plus a laboratory and a genetics bank, located in and around the BIOCANT Research Park in Cantanhede.
Construction is to start in September 2017 and should be completed by next spring, creating 100 local jobs.
The reasons given by Kennedy for choosing Portugal are that the climate favours the development of the plant and Portugal has highly qualified biotechnology professionals.
"Portugal has the ideal climate and this issue was extremely important because we can produce environmentally friendly cannabis," Kennedy told the Lusa news agency.
The Canadian company, which has subsidiaries in Germany, Australia and New Zealand, says it currently sells products in six countries, plans to begin exporting to five more by the end of 2017 but is not likely to serve the Portuguese domestic market for the time being.
The Portugal growing and distribution operation will be the company’s first outside of Canada.
Tilray is owned by Privateer Holdings, a US private equity firm founded in 2010 in Seattle by three entrepreneurs with experience in investment banking and venture capital. The company admits to be operating in an industry "stigmatised by negative perceptions and substandard business practices," and aims to be “elevating consumer expectations through consistent quality and service.”
“When prohibition ends, we intend to hold the most enviable position in the market and to generate enormous returns – both financial and social,” according to Privateer’s website.
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For an in depth look at Medical Cannabis, have a look at the linked article from dopa.com - HERE
