Australian Natural Therapeutic Group has just announced a merger with Canadian Asterion Cannabis to develop one of the largest renewable-powered medicinal cannabis growing, manufacturing and R&D facilities in the world.
"Construction on the $400 million worth facility in the Darling Downs, near Toowoomba, is scheduled to begin in the next few months - with the 75-hectare facility set to produce more than 500,000 kg of medicinal cannabis a year and create some 1000 regional jobs," ANTG team explains.
Matt Cantelo, CEO of Australian Natural Therapeutic Group (ANTG) said the agreement represents a golden opportunity for Australia to reach its full potential in growing and cultivating medicinal cannabis and serving the domestic and export markets.
"We see Australia becoming the global leader in medicinal cannabis production," says Mr Cantelo, who earlier this year signed a $92 million, nine-year deal with German company Cannamedical Pharma to export commercially-grown Australian medical cannabis flowers to Europe.
"We have the gold standard in the regulatory framework, depth of research, and climate for growing excellent produce - but what we haven't had to date is the option of scale."
"Once we get the scale we need, we will be working to ensure medicinal cannabis is more accessible to Australians."
"This has meant we could mostly meet the demand to the general market, but in the coming years we see demand will absolutely outstrip supply."
"Through this new partnership, we will be able to expand our range to meet the growing number of conditions being prescribed by doctors."
Stephen Van Deventer, CEO of Asterion commented, "the merger of Asterion and ANTG fits in with both companies' short and long-term strategies. This provides early revenue for Asterion and scalability to ANTG. We are extremely excited with this merger as both companies have the same vision, priorities, and mindset".
According to the company, the project expected to create some 1000 jobs in the region, with highly trained and trainable potential employees familiar with the agricultural and horticultural sector in the area.
The first 10ha glasshouse and manufacturing facility is due to be up and running by the end of next year, with phase two another 10ha glasshouse, and phase three after that an additional 20ha one.
A partially binding agreement-Letter of Intent (LOI) has been signed by both parties.
For more information:
Australian Natural Therapeutics Group
australiannatural.com