UzCanna, UzCanna Ltd, a subsidiary of Maltese-based Melabis, has become the first company to legally import cannabis seeds into Uzbekistan. This is reported by BusinessCann.
Founded in 2018 by British businessman Damon Booth, the EU-certified company is already importing about 4 million Fedora cannabis seeds into the country.
A $33 million investment will be made over five years, and a state-of-the-art greenhouse will be built on 25,000 square meters to create a seed bank to grow another 8-10 million seeds by UzCanna.
In April 2023, planting of the first batch of seeds supplied by Ventura seeds will begin on a fully protected area of approximately 500 hectares at the UzCanna farm in the Sardoba district of the Syrdarya region of Uzbekistan.
According to Booth, buyers are already available for the first harvest, with each plant expected to provide a bountiful yield of eight to a quarter kilogram of biomass.
“The benefits for Uzbekistan, both economically and environmentally, will potentially be huge as we gradually increase our growing footprint year-on-year, look to develop our own finished products, and in two- or three-years time widen our reach further into Central Asia,” Damon says.
Construction of the cultivation greenhouse is expected to begin in late January 2023 and will take approximately six weeks to complete.
The reason for UzCanna's move to Uzbekistan was the climate, low operating costs and the country's support for business.
“Our aim is to be the lowest cost but highest quality bulk CBD producer for extraction companies. Our customers are extraction companies in Europe, and they are extracting finished products. We want to be the bulk supplier of that product,” the British entrepreneur continues.
In March 2020, the Uzbek government legalized the cultivation of cannabis with the condition that growers of industrial hemp with a THC level of less than 0.2 per cent have a government license.
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