Israel greenhouse and indoor production of medical cannabis have been developing rapidly over the past 2 years. In these challenging days, the industry keeps on going strong, says Eli Shalmon, Head of Marketing department and product manager of CannaMIX at Pelemix – one of the leading companies of the coir industry worldwide.
“The new regulation started in 2016 forced the Medical Cannabis growers to make a lot of changes with regards to growing methods so to be most efficient and produce high quality and clean flower,” Eli, explains. “Opening the market from 8 veterans Medical Cannabis growing companies to about 45-50 at the first stage created a high demand for quality improvement to achieve consistent Cannabis flowers/buds,” he says. “Most of the new operations are very high standard structured: high-end greenhouse infrastructures, with precision-controlled irrigation and climate, drying technology, artificial shading - lighting – darkness, and so on.”
At the same time, there are several challenges in the Israeli and worldwide Medical Cannabis growing industry when it comes to organic & coir substrates as well.
Low Volume substrate per plant
“Increasing the number of plants per m2 was the main challenge of the shift from the growing concept of ‘High volume substrate per plant’ to ‘Low volume substrate per plant’”, Eli further explains. “This was the most common first activity with the majority of the growers, but nowadays, after almost 1.5 years of demonstrations and commercial supply, we see a change in the market. Pelemix CannaMIX MJOT coir products fit this concept due to the optimal air/water ratios characteristics, irrigation flexibility and uniformity.”
“In addition, our technical support team developed agronomical tools such as irrigation and feeding programs, in cooperation with cannabis consulting companies, labs specialized in the pharma and food industries, and so on.
The CannaMIX MJOTis mixed of different coco coir fractions. Buffered and washed or only mechanically washed, “For organic uses,” Eli points out. “The physical and chemical structures and characteristics are flexible, based on pre-order and end-user demand. As a company that works internationally, we have a lot of know-how in terms of what type of mix is most suitable for a specific climate condition, growing infrastructure, site systems and growing concepts.”
Quality assurance: Cleanest & regulations demand
Another challenge is fitting the product to the highest level of phytosanitary and microbiology cleanliness. “Israel has extremely strict regulations regarding the cleanliness of the final product and of the growing process,” Eli remarks. “The regulation requires cannabis products to be free from heavy metals, free from crop protection residues, and free form soil detritus and pathogens. This is very similar to the Food industry and cosmetics Industry.
The growers that aim at and are committed to obtaining GAP and GMP certifications are targeting the EU-GMP guidelines. “Europe has similar strict standards as Israel, and the USA is now creating formal regulations and standardization that seems to be similar to the GMP concept,” Eli observes.
“The concept at Pelemix is that we produce the CannaMIX bags for an industry that is strongly connected to the pharma industry. That brought our production and quality assurance managing staff to decide of designation one of Pelemix India manufacturing sites to accommodate these highest cleanest standards.”
“All CannaMIX MJOT products we ship worldwide adhere to the highest standards of phytosanitary and microbiology cleanliness. The QA process is strictly traced, from the raw material testing – water for washing and treating quality, until the end-user delivery at site, all by official and pre-approved labs tests according to the regulations. As results, for example, we can see high end clean and healthy “flowers“ with no irradiation needed before packaging,” Eli says.
Challenging days
Pelemix is facing other production challenges, just like the whole coir industry because of the COVID – 19 pandemic. “The lockdown in India and Sri Lanka affects heavily the production,” Eli says. “Pelemix Thailand is still in full swing production and we are taking special care of our workers' health with by changing the way they operate.”
Our "stocks in hand" strategy in different countries allowed us to keep serving our clients for a while BUT this will not help with new orders which are in the " pipeline" and supposed to be produced during this days.
“We are prepared to be back to Normal production capacities as soon the Indian and Sri Lankan government’s measures to minimize and stop the spreading of the virus will allow us to do so. We are prepared with plenty of raw material stocks, ready to be processed in order to supply as soon as our worldwide clients demand. Let’s all pray for better days and good health,” Eli concludes.
For more information:
Pelemix
[email protected]
www.pelemix.com