Clever Leaves receives approval from Infarmed to double cultivation area

Clever Leaves Holdings Inc., a multinational company and licensed producer of pharmaceutical grade cannabinoids, has obtained approval from Infarmed IP to expand its facilities in Odemira in southern Portugal. In a press release sent out this morning, Clever Leaves said that expanding the area of ​​cannabis production for medicinal purposes will strengthen the area of ​​scientific research and increase export units.

With this approval, the Clever Leaves property in the region of São Teotónio, in Odemira, more than doubles its cultivation capacity: it goes from the approximately 10.000 square meters already licensed by Infarmed to close to 24.000 square meters - including a dedicated facility designed specifically for Applied Research purposes.

At the same time, Infarmed renewed the company's license to cultivate, import and export pharmaceutical quality products, an essential decision for Clever Leaves Portugal to continue its efforts of continued expansion and the development of research carried out by this cannabis market operator. medicinal.

Kyle Detwiler, CEO of Clever Leaves. Photo: DR

Approval of the expansion of the facilities will not only increase commercial production to a higher quality standard, but also reinforce the focus on the attention given to the testing and stabilization of new varieties of the cannabis plant and the continuous development of new products, through various techniques and processes of Applied Research.

Until now, Clever Leaves has shipped product from its Portuguese facilities to the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and Israel, countries with different requirements regarding the specifications that must be met to allow this type of product to enter each country. The additional greenhouse space now approved by Infarmed will allow greater adaptation of cultivation efforts to the specific regulations of each country, which will result in increased export capacity and greater diversification of the countries to which exports are made.

“Our Portuguese operations over the past year have already set a historic benchmark 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”.

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, and the first products are expected to be ready for the market in the second or third quarters of 2022. At the same time, construction is proceeding at a good pace on the expansion project that Clever Leaves is carrying out. cable to increase its post-harvest processing capabilities in Portugal, which the company expects to be fully operational by the end of 2022.