A Marlborough-based medicinal cannabis company has secured a licence to grow New Zealand’s largest ever crop.
The Ministry of Health has issued Puro with a licence allowing it to commercially cultivate 90,000 plants for medical use.
The crop will be germinated in tunnel houses before being transplanted to a farm at Kekerengu.
Puro director Sank Macfarlane said: “This is low-THC cannabis. We grow thisfor CBD and CBG and other cannabinoids. It’s essentially just a hemp crop. It is secured and out of site from anyone that wants to go looking for it, but we don’t envisage we’ll have any problems down there.”
A report from independent economists Agribusiness Group showed Puro could create up to 375 full-time jobs within the next two years.
“The way we are doing it is very labour intensive. We’ll be hand harvesting the majority of the crop so we’ll see 50 to 60 workers over the harvest period,” said Macfarlane.
Puro has several other commercial cultivation applications in the final stages of the review process, including one for its recently completed indoor research facility in Marlborough’s Waihopai Valley.