News Industry Updates Cultivation Extraction Management Production
Flowr receives licence for outdoor, greenhouse cultivation

The Flowr Corporation has received a second site cultivation licence from Health Canada for its Flowr Forest project.  The company has begun transplanting select cultivars and is on track for a first harvest in the fourth quarter of 2019. Flowr expects to produce approximately 10,000 kilograms per year from Flowr Forest once fully optimized and operational.

Flowr Forest, which is located on the company’s Kelowna campus, has 42 greenhouses totaling 189,000 square feet situated within a total licensed outdoor grow area of more than 530,000 square feet.  The outdoor cultivation area planted is expected to be 150,000 square feet and can be expanded to include an incremental 160,000 square feet. The company in total has over 750,000 square feet dedicated to Flowr Forest’s current and future operations and has a right of first refusal on an additional 850,000 square feet located immediately to the north and contiguous with the currently licensed area.

“We are extremely pleased to have a cultivation license for Flowr Forest in time to deliver production in 2019,” said Vinay Tolia, Flowr’s chief executive officer. “Getting a second site license required a tremendous effort from our whole team as well as working collaboratively with Health Canada to get to this stage in a timely manner. All site work was already complete, so we are in the process of transplanting cultivars and expect an additional 10,000 kilograms of production on top of what we will produce at our Kelowna 1 indoor facility.”

Flowr’s chief executive added that having his company’s outdoor, greenhouse and indoor facilities in one location is key to “driving efficiency and optimization” in Flowr’s Canadian operations.

Flowr said it remains committed to producing differentiated products and its dried flower products will continue to be sourced exclusively from its indoor facilities in Kelowna. Cannabis cultivated within Flowr Forest, on the other hand, will support Flowr’s forthcoming extract business.

“Furthermore, with the recently announced changes to the regulatory framework and proposed timing for additional form factors to reach consumers in late 2019 or early 2020, the licensing of Flowr Forest positions the company for a timely launch of its expanded adult-use recreational product line,” the company said.

The company expects its first new product launch from Flowr Forest to be a live resin vape offering. Live resins are generated through specific and proprietary harvest, processing and extraction systems which together optimally preserve the full range of cannabinoids and aromatic characteristics of the source cannabis plant. The result is a cannabis concentrate with richly aromatic terpene profiles that are true to plant without the need for additional diluents, preservatives or flavouring, Flowr said.