TORONTO, March 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- Aleafia Health Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiary, Aleafia Farms Inc., has secured a Health Canada Cultivation Licence for the company’s Niagara Production Facility, located in Grimsby, Ont.

“This is an important and long-awaited breakthrough for Aleafia Health. We can now fully leverage our supply chain across three completed, licensed production facilities,” said Aleafia Health CEO Geoffrey Benic. “The Niagara Facility provides both near term, stable inventory for our health and wellness sales channels, and the inputs needed for the 2020 outdoor cultivation season.”

The facility features a highly advanced, automated, moving container bench system, which allows for a perpetual, year-round harvest. Capital investments made in automated cultivation and quality assurance systems will assist in reducing both costs and execution risk. It will be used as a staging ground for the company’s planned 2020 outdoor cultivation at its Port Perry Facility. Starter plants will be grown on-site and transported to Port Perry at the beginning of the outdoor cultivation season, significantly reducing planting-to-harvest lead times.

The Niagara facility’s perpetual harvest offsets seasonal fluctuations in inventory inherent in outdoor cultivation and will ensure, consistent, standardized input material for medical and adult-use sales channels. The Licence, granted on March 13, 2020 after markets closed, expires on March 13, 2023 and authorizes cannabis cultivation, propagation, harvesting and sales in Building 1.

Building 1 includes 50,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse area and 20,000 sq. ft. for post-cultivation operations, including drying, storage and shipping and will also be used to support outdoor cultivation. The company expects to submit a Licence amendment application to Health Canada in the next 30 days to authorize production in the remaining 90,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse area.