Medical cannabis production is easier said than done

The production of medical cannabis calls for extreme attention to detail and precision, as well as compliance with intricate legislative requirements and official demands. It also calls for perseverance, as Annelie Coleman found out on a visit to medical cannabis producers Coenie and Ilse Venter near Viljoenskroon in the Free State.

The Venters are grain producers in the north-western Free State on the road between Viljoenskroon and Kroonstad. As Coenie Venter puts it, it is a high-risk maize, soya beans and sunflower production area.

"Grain production is becoming increasingly risky because of the growing climatic risk. We regularly have to deal with extreme droughts. The droughts that occurred between 2006 and 2016 particularly forced us to pursue alternative sources of income to supplement dryland grain production. We considered a host of alternatives, such as pecan nuts and blueberries. However, as medical marijuana had gone mainstream globally, we decided to embark on the production thereof. Our research showed there is growing longterm demand and potential for cannabis.

"The biggest mistake we made was underestimating the demands and complexities of medical cannabis production and believing it was going to be easier than it is," Coenie explains.

“It is a new industry with huge challenges, from cultivation to processing to marketing and export. We made wrong decisions every step of the way, from using the wrong cultivation spaces, wrong cooling systems for cultivation and processing, and wrong genetics. Fact of the matter is that we paid expensive school fees and it was a very steep learning curve. I want to caution prospective new entrants into this industry to do as much research as possible, engage existing producers and make use of experts in the field.”

‘OUR RESEARCH SHOWED THERE IS GROWING LONG-TERM DEMAND AND POTENTIAL FOR CANNABIS’