Village Farms International’s Cannabis Joint Venture Pure Sunfarms Begins Shipping Branded Products to Manitoba

Village Farms International, Inc. (NASDAQ: VFF) (TSX: VFF) announces its majority-owned joint venture for large-scale, low-cost, high-quality cannabis production, Pure Sunfarms, has begun shipping branded, packaged dried flower products to Manitoba’s licensed private sector retailers, with these products available at the first 26 participating retailers in Manitoba beginning this week.

Village Farms is one of the largest and longest-operating vertically integrated greenhouse growers in North America. Village Farms produces is and distributes fresh, premium-quality produce with year-round to national grocers in the U.S. and Canada from more than nine million square feet of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) greenhouses in Canada and the U.S., as well as from its partner greenhouses in Canada and Mexico.  The Company is leveraging its 30 years of experience as a large-scale, low-cost vertically integrated grower for the rapidly emerging global cannabis and CBD opportunities.  In Canada, British-Columbia-based Pure Sunfarms (majority-owned by Village Farms) is one of the single largest cannabis operations in the world and one of the best-selling brands in the country.  In the U.S., subject to compliance with all applicable U.S. federal and state laws, the Company is pursuing a strategy become a leading developer and supplier of branded and white-labeled CBD products  targeting “big box” and other major retailers and consumer packaged goods companies, and with one the largest greenhouse operations in country, is well positioned for the potential federal legalization of high-THC cannabis.

Pure Sunfarms’ products are now available in five of Canada’s six most populous provinces, which in aggregate represent more than 70% of the total Canadian population.  Manitoba ranks as the sixth largest Canadian province by cannabis sales, comprising approximately 4.5% of the country’s total sales and has a higher per capita spend on cannabis than the country average2.

“We are thrilled to further expand our presence in Canada and make Pure Sunfarms’ products available to even more Canadians by adding our fifth province,” said Mandesh Dosanjh, President & CEO, Pure Sunfarms. “We are confident that the Pure Sunfarms brand and products, with quality, signature strains at an attractive price, will be received by Manitobans with the same enthusiasm that they have been in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.”

Village Farms also announces that the Pure Sunfarms brand achieved record sales (defined as sales of Pure Sunfarms products by the provincial boards to retailers, as well as sales by the provincial boards directly to consumers via their web sites) in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta in aggregate for the four-week period ending July 19, 2020.  Sales during the final week of that four-week period were also a record for a one-week period. In addition, Pure Sunfarms continues to rank as the top-selling dried flower brand at the Ontario Cannabis Store for the year to date.

“Pure Sunfarms continues to execute on its growth strategy, leveraging its leading brand performance1 for a larger consumer audience, as the overall Canadian recreational cannabis market continues to grow,” said Michael DeGiglio, CEO, Village Farms. “The continuing strength of Pure Sunfarms’ brand strategy, positioning and execution, coupled with recent sales momentum as the Canadian market recovers from a soft second quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic, bodes very well as Pure Sunfarms prepares for the launch of its first bottled oil and vape products in the coming weeks.”

Pure Sunfarms continues to advance discussions with other provincial distributors for potential supply agreements to further expand its presence in the Canadian cannabis market.