Village Farms International and Emerald Health Therapeutics announced that their 50/50 joint venture for large-scale, low-cost, high-quality cannabis production, Pure Sunfarms, received from Health Canada an amendment to its cultivation license for its Delta 3 greenhouse in Delta, BC. This amendment permits Pure Sunfarms to substantially expand its cannabis production to 225,000 square feet of the 1.1-million square foot Delta 3 production facility.
In mid-May, Pure Sunfarms initiated commercial-scale production on 130,000 square feet at the Delta 3 greenhouse, which is now fully utilized, with harvesting expected to begin in August. Planting in the newly-licensed area will commence this week and is expected to be completed by the end of July. Pure Sunfarms expects to have the full 1.1 million square foot Delta 3 facility, one of the single largest cannabis growing facilities in the world, converted to cannabis production by year end.
The technologically-advanced Delta 3 greenhouse design is based on decades of large-scale, low-cost agricultural production experience and extensive cannabis expertise, resulting in a state-of-the-art facility with 17 grow rooms optimized for year-round harvesting (more than 85 harvests annually) and an automated process line encompassing harvesting, trimming, drying and packaging. The greenhouse is designed to cultivate more than 200,000 cannabis plants concurrently.
"We are thrilled to expand Pure Sunfarms' production area to 225,000 square feet," said Michael DeGiglio, Director, Pure Sunfarms and CEO of Village Farms. "Leveraging Village Farms' deep experience designing greenhouse operations globally for high-value crops, Pure Sunfarms has developed the Delta 3 greenhouse to optimize operating conditions for the highest quality and yield with continuous year-round harvesting. We are not surprised to see our first commercial-scale crop thriving in this environment and remain firmly on track for our production targets in 2018 and beyond."
"The Delta 3 production facility is maturing at an outstanding pace thanks to our senior cultivation, financial, and operational teams. We are making great strides to achieve large-volume, high-quality, low-cost cannabis production and anticipate receiving our sales license before the onset of recreational sales on October 17th," said Chris Wagner, Director, Pure Sunfarms, and CEO of Emerald Health Therapeutics. "With the Canadian government's historic legalization of adult-use cannabis, we are focused on meeting the needs of both medical and recreational consumers in this new era of cannabis regulation."