New Outdoor research sites in Quebec and British Columbia to study best-in-class cultivation techniques and advance plant science
Aurora Cannabis Inc. (“Aurora” or the “Company”) (NYSE: ACB) (TSX: ACB), the Canadian company defining the future of cannabis worldwide, today announced that it has received Health Canada licenses for outdoor cultivation at two Canadian sites.
Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with funded capacity in excess of 625,000 kg per annum and sales and operations in 25 countries across five continents, Aurora is one of the world’s largest and leading cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution.
The new sites in Quebec and British Columbia will be used for cultivation research to develop new technology, genetics and intellectual property in order to drive sustainable, high-quality outdoor production. Aurora purposefully chose the outdoor sites because they represent two different growing environments. The company will conduct research on cultivation techniques to further excel at growing cannabis in varying climate conditions and will examine approaches to environmentally sustainable cannabis agriculture.
The newly-named Western facility will be called Aurora Valley and is a 207-acre operation in Westwold, British Columbia. The Eastern facility, a 21,000 square foot operation at the Aurora Eau facility in Lachute, is the first approved outdoor grow operation for cannabis in Quebec. Aurora Valley is expected to be planted shortly and Aurora Eau has already been planted.
The two sites are an extension of the scientific research Aurora will be conducting at its new Comox facility, which will be ready in the fall of 2019. The Comox facility consists of a 21,000 square foot indoor grow facility and a 10,500 square foot laboratory. This unique research centre will be home for Aurora’s plant breeding team designed to create new cannabis cultivars with improved growing characteristics for both indoor and outdoor cultivation.
“Aurora believes in innovative operations and intensive research and we’re applying our approach to outdoor grown cannabis,” said Aurora CEO Terry Booth. “Our team plans to use these areas to ensure we are able to consistently grow the high-quality cannabis Aurora has become known for around the world. We’re proud to be a Canadian company and this is a further commitment to research and job creation in Canada.”
Dr. Jonathan Page, Chief Science Officer at Aurora added, “For this season and next, our focus will be on researching cultivation methods and evaluating genetics in order to produce high THC and CBD cannabis in outdoor-grown plants, with the ultimate goal of extracting these components. The unique climates of each site also presents a great opportunity to determine which cultivars will perform best in different outdoor environments.”
In addition to the two new outdoor production sites, Aurora confirms it has now received the Health Canada processing license for its Aurora Air facility located near the Edmonton International Airport and Aurora Sky. Aurora Air will be home to several of the new production lines for edible products such as gummies and chocolates, to be introduced to the Canadian consumer market in December 2019.
Aurora’s Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the symbol “ACB”, and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite Index.
