Tilray, one of Canada’s largest licensed producers, has secured a license to produce medical cannabis in Portugal. Earlier this morning, the company announced that Government of Portugal has issued the Nanaimo, BC-based LP a license to import cannabis genetics and cultivate cannabis for medical purposes.
The company also said it would invest up to €20 million (C$29.2 million) in a European Union campus based in the BIOCANT Research Park in Cantanhede, Portugal, an agricultural and biosciences hub between Porto and Lisbon. The first phase of the project, expected to be completed by the spring of 2018, includes an indoor laboratory and genetics bank, outdoor cultivation sites, a 10,000-square-meter greenhouse, and a 1,500-square-meter processing facility.
Tilray is owned by Privateer Holdings, the Seattle-based private equity firm that also owns Leafly.
“For the past two years we’ve been working hard to find the right location for cultivation, processing, and research facilities to serve rapidly growing demand for high-quality medical cannabis products in Europe,” Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy said in a statement released by the company. “Portugal has the ideal climate to cultivate cannabis, a highly-skilled health care workforce, and a vibrant research community. It’s more environmentally-friendly and cost-effective to supply European patients from Portugal than from northern climates.”
The Portuguese license and facility continues the Canadian company’s global expansion, which includes subsidiaries in Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
