Aleafia Health Inc. (TSXV: ALEF) announced today that it’s moving forward with it’s planned open cultivation facility, having secured local regulatory approval for a 60,000 kg capacity expansion at its existing Port Perry facility. This secure, low-cost facility, when completed, would be one of Canada’s leading cannabis production facilities.
Currently waiting for regulatory approval from Health Canada, Aleafia plans to build a state of the art, secure outdoor cultivation site which would require less start-up capital, reduced operating expenses, as well as a lower cost per kilogram output than traditional facilities. The planned expansion will be located on a 30-acre plot of land adjacent to the existing indoor Port Perry operation.
“Aleafia is once again positioning itself as an innovative leader in the cannabis industry,” said Aleafia Chairman Julian Fantino, adding that “Secure outdoor cultivation will see Aleafia produce cannabis at among the lowest cost per gram rates in the industry, when compared to traditional greenhouse cultivation.” The company plans for the facility to be complete and operational by summer of 2019.
Additionally, the company will be filling the 80 to 100 full-time positions directly from the local labor force, a region which is well suited to cannabis agriculture. “The region is blessed with a climate and landscape perfectly suited to agriculture. This cultivation expansion will be a boon to the local tax base while creating good paying jobs,” mentioned Aleafia CEO Geoffrey Benic.
Aleafia also made several other corporate and operational announcements in its press release. One of which was the announcement of Lea Ray joining the companies board of directors, a person described as being an “invaluable resource” for the company as it looks to expand to the U.S. investment community eventually.
Other updates included the status of their planned 160,000 sq. ft. Niagara greenhouse which is on schedule to be refitted by 2018. At the moment, Aleafia’s growing output is estimated at 38,000 kg of cannabis flowers, which would jump to over 98,000 once the Port Perry expansion is completed. Additionally, the company announced its first medical cannabis sale only days after acquiring a Sales License from Health Canada.
This piece of news follows a recent announcement last week where Aleafia announced a supply contract with CannTrust Holdings (TSX: TRST) to grow 15,000 kg of cannabis in 2019. The day after, Aleafia announced it had submitted a finalized application to be listed on the NASDAQ, according to Yahoo Finance.
Aleafia shares have gone from $3.00 to $3.16 CAN in response to the announcement, a 5.33% percent increase. Over the past 30 days, $ALEF has seen a 263% increase in stock price, from $1.20 to its current value and at the moment has a market capitalization of USD 443.9 million.
Aleafia Health Inc. Corporate Profile
The country’s largest network of referral-only medical cannabis clinics, with 22 locations across Canada, Aleafia’s Canabo Medical Clinics (CMC) have trained over 80 physicians to address the increasing need for medical cannabis therapy, helping over 50,000 patients assessed since inception get the help they need. – Aleafia
