Highlands Investments, Africa’s largest outdoor cannabis-growing facility, has secured the world’s largest legal single sale delivery of medical grade cannabis — 8,500kg — to the European market.
The landmark sale follows a previously successful shipment of 176.5kg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) flower exported to Europe in April.
Lesotho-based Highlands is a licensed cultivator of high-quality certified cannabis. The company recently merged with SA cannabidiol (CBD) brand Goodleaf to enable it to sell products in Europe and the UK.
Goodleaf is Africa’s largest cannabis goods retailer and offers premium CBD products.
Highlands Investments MD Mark Corbett said his team secured the sale of 8.5 tonnes of its Highlands Pure THC and CBD flower and trim in Europe.
“We believe this to be one of the largest legal shipments of medical grade cannabis to date. [It] is a significant milestone for our business. Our cannabis is GAP and ISO 22000 [International Organisation for Standardisation] certified with a proven supply chain into the much-coveted European medical cannabis market,” Corbett said.
Lesotho was one of the first African countries to grant licences for the cultivation of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes. Highlands Investments, formerly Canopy Growth Africa, was granted one of the first and largest licences by its government in 2017.
The licence allows the company to cultivate, manufacture, supply, import and export medical cannabis products including flower, oil, distillate and isolate. It has established two sites in Lesotho, one at Kolojane and another near Moshoeshoe I International Airport, Maseru.
The shipping of cannabis is a highly complex process as the industry is closely monitored and regulated, Corbett said. The supplier and receiver of the cannabis products both need to be licensed. Shipping companies also require stringent licensing to move raw cannabis materials and other products between legal jurisdictions, he said.
Having proven its ability to meet the stringent shipping requirements with its April shipment, Highlands successfully secured the bulk sale of the remainder of its 2021 harvest, comprising just more than 2,000kg of THC and 6,500kg of CBD flower and trim.
“The size of the shipment, which is enough to fill almost four 40-foot containers, required a chartered plane to transport to Macedonia,” Corbett said.
The European cannabis market is forecast to reach $3.8bn (R56bn) by 2025 according to the Prohibition Partners Key Insights from the European Cannabis Report of April 2021.
“The rapidly growing global medical, wellness and consumer cannabis markets all increasingly require certified, high-quality flower to meet their expanding product portfolios,” Corbett said.
Highlands has some of the most competitive cost per hectare metrics, ISO 22000 certification and a proven route to market.
“With demand for quality cannabis growing, we are now in the process of extending our Highlands Pure range of products to include GMP certified distillates, isolates and crude. These products will be available on the global market from quarter four 2021,” Corbett said.
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