Aleafia Health has completed the construction of its Paris Processing facility’s Phase II expansion and secured full site occupancy on October 4, 2019, following the successful completion of County of Brant inspections. The Paris Phase II expansion is a 30,000 sq. ft. facility entirely dedicated to the extraction, production, packaging and distribution of high-margin, value-added cannabis health and wellness products.
"The expansion builds upon the current, licensed and operational Paris facility, which features cultivation rooms and handles all extraction, packaging and order fulfillment for Aleafia Health’s medical, adult-use and international sales," the team with the company explains.
"Paris will feature an initial 115,000 kg dried flower equivalent (“DFE”) extraction capacity, a 2,775 per cent increase over the Company’s current 4,000 kg DFE extraction capacity. The Company expects that Paris can through-put all dried flower grown by Aleafia Health, including at its newly expanded, 86-acre Port Perry Outdoor Grow site."
"To complete the final stage of securing its required Licence Amendment, the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Emblem Cannabis Corp., expects to submit its final evidence package to Health Canada this October, demonstrating the facility’s operational readiness."
Purpose-built to EU-GMP standards for export to EU market
According to the company, the facility is purpose-built to meet European Union Good Manufacturing Practices certification requirements. EU-GMP certified facilities demonstrate the highest level of pharmaceutical-grade quality, and securing the certification will allow Aleafia Health to begin exporting finished goods including cannabis oils and capsules to the EU.
Through the Aleafia Health Germany joint-venture with German pharmaceutical wholesaler and logistics company Acnos Pharma GmbH, Aleafia will gain access to the burgeoning German medical cannabis market, with access to 22,000 pharmacies and 110 distribution centres.
115,000 kg extraction capacity with ability for further expansion
"The Paris expansion will rapidly accelerate Aleafia Health’s production capacity, and ability to create a wide variety of differentiated products across multiple categories," they further explain. "It has been built specifically to allow for further, significant expansions of extraction capacity by utilizing additional machinery. For instance, the existing capital expenditures budget accounts for additional ethanol extraction machinery that would bring total capacity to 190,000 kg DFE and would take approximately eight weeks to bring online."
The company explains that each element of the extraction and production process occupies a purpose-built, dedicated room in the facility, maximizing through-put ability and operational efficiency. Highlights include:
- 40,000 kg DFE of supercritical C02 extraction which is primarily used for the production of pharmaceutical-grade oil-based products including capsules and sprays
- 75,000 kg DFE of ethanol extraction, which produces a tasteless distillate ideally suited for new product formats including edibles, beverages and extracts
- In-house analytical testing and quality assurance equipment, allowing for products to reach market two to three weeks earlier than with the use of external third-party testing
- Production and packaging machinery along with space dedicated to creating new, differentiated product formats soon available in the Canadian market
- A dedicated laboratory for ongoing R&D, product development and continued process optimization
- A logistics centre handling order fulfilment to medical patients, provincial wholesalers and all international exports
- The entire expansion project, including machinery for yet to be announced new product formats, falls within the Company’s fully funded, previously reported capital expenditures budget
“The Paris expansion represents the crown jewel of Aleafia Health’s cannabis ecosystem. This facility will allow us to rapidly expand the production of high-margin derivative products, while adding new, differentiated formats that are grown, processed, packaged and exported by Aleafia Health,” said CEO Geoffrey Benic. “We look forward to bringing the next generation of cannabis products to market, while greatly expanding our international footprint in Germany, Australia and beyond.”
For more information:
Aleafia Health
AleafiaHealth.com