Yet another large-scale Delta greenhouse operation is going to pot, and it will be one of the biggest in Canada.
Cannabis in greenhouse/Shutterstock
Agraflora Organics International Inc. announced its partnership with Houweling Nurseries that will see the conversion of the 2.2 million square foot Ladner greenhouse for cannabis production.
The 20 hectare (49-acre) facility on 64th Street will be the second largest cannabis greenhouse facility in Canada among those that are currently physically built, Agraflora stated in a news release today. The company also noted the Delta facility is second in size only to an Ontario facility owned by Canopy Growth Corp., the world’s largest cannabis company.
Casey Houweling plans to convert his vegetable greenhouse operation in Ladner to cannabis production, becoming one of the country’s biggest.
According to Agraflora CEO Derek Ivany, the Delta facility will be capable of an annual production capacity of 250 million grams of high-quality cannabis product, and the company has already solidified major agreements.
Agraflora became part of Canopy Growth’s CraftGrow Family in 2017. Canopy is also involved in a separate large-scale greenhouse operation on Hornby Drive in East Ladner.
Agraflora explained it will be retrofitting the Houweling greenhouse in three stages, aiming to make the facility fully operational by 2021. The first stage will include the completion of 350,000 square feet of growing space and 100,000 square feet of post-production, scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2019.
“The Houweling’s Groups brings 40 years of greenhouse experience and growing expertise to the project as well as a plethora of established infrastructure. The Houweling’s Group is a fully vertically integrated organization with a total of 8.4 million square feet of greenhouse space in Canada and the United States and more than 200 employees. They have employee groups working in growing, harvesting, distribution, administration, I.T. and finance, and this means that they are fully self-sufficient,” Agraflora stated.
Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with Houweling Nurseries owner Casey Houweling to form a new venture called Propagation Services Canada Inc. to provide “flower ready” starter plants to cannabis cultivators in Canada and internationally.
“Providing flower ready cannabis plants to cultivators is a natural evolution of the cannabis industry, following a similar path as the vegetable growing industry,” said Houweling in a news release at the time.
“We strongly believe that our existing facility in Delta, B.C., and our many years of propagation experience and horticultural expertise, creates compelling value to cannabis cultivators. We are fully committed to both sectors and will expand for both as the need arises to supply our valued customer base.”
In a separate story this year it was announced Casey Houweling joined a consultant team behind an MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. plan to build a $200-million, 1.5-million-square-foot medicinal cannabis greenhouse facility in Weedon, Que.
Agraflora, meanwhile, also has a stake in Solaris Nutraceuticals, a private company based in Australia which is building a 1.2 million-square-foot cannabis greenhouse in that country. Casey Houweling is a consultant for the Solaris project. NYM Nutraceuticals is also connected to that project.
Agraflora Organics International Inc. was originally called PUF Ventures Inc. but last month announced it changed its name “to better reflect the direction of the company's business.”
The City of Delta is working with three other greenhouse that are converting to cannabis so that they have new business licenses, but as of this week wasn’t aware of the Houweling plan.
A company called Rubicon Organics is converting an existing greenhouse on 104th Street in East Ladner to grow pot, while larger greenhouses Canopy and Village Farms are also making the switch.
