Clever Leaves Holdings Inc., a leading multinational operator and licensed producer of pharmaceutical grade cannabinoids, announced today that it will double the cannabis growing capacity on its property in São Teotónio (Odemira).
According to the company, after obtaining approval for the expansion of its facilities in Portugal, granted by the Portuguese regulatory authority, INFARMED, the area will increase from the current 10.000 square meters already licensed to nearly 24.000 square meters. This investment will include “a dedicated facility designed specifically for Applied Research purposes”.
At the same time, INFARMED renewed Clever Leaves' license to cultivate, import and export a pharmaceutical quality product, «an essential decision for Clever Leaves Portugal to continue its efforts for continued expansion and the development of research carried out by this market operator of medical cannabis,” the company added.
The approval of the expansion of the facilities “will not only allow to raise commercial production to an even higher quality standard, but also to reinforce the focus on the attention given to the testing and stabilization of new varieties of the cannabis plant and to the continuous development of new products, through various techniques and processes of Applied Research», he added.
Clever Leaves also informed that, until now, it has “shipped product from its Portuguese facilities to the United Kingdom, Australia, United States and Israel, countries with different requirements regarding the specifications that must be met to allow the entry of this type of products in each country'.
The additional space in the greenhouse now approved by INFARMED will allow, according to the multinational company, “a greater adaptation of the cultivation efforts to the specific regulations of each country, which will result in an increase in the export capacity and in a greater diversification of the countries to which the exports are made'.
“Our Portuguese operations last year have already allowed us to establish a historic baseline in the global cannabis trade,” said Kyle Detwiler, CEO of Clever Leaves.
"With this new approval granted for the expansion of our operations, we are optimistic about what we will be able to achieve in the international market in 2022", he added.
Among the specific factors that will promote even more favorable conditions for the production of cannabis for medical use in the new facilities, the company identifies, for example, "better temperature control, humidity management measures and better lighting conditions".
Production at the new growing facilities has already started, with the expectation that "the first products will be ready for the market in the second or third quarters of 2022".
In parallel, «construction continues at a good pace in the expansion project that Clever Leaves is carrying out to increase its post-harvest processing capacities in Portugal, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2022».
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