Australis Capital Inc (CSE:AUSA) (OTCMKTS:AUSAF) (FRA:AC4) is teaming up with agricultural technology company 3 Rivers Biotech Inc on a tissue culture joint venture, the company announced Wednesday. 

3 Rivers specializes in commercial-scale micropropagation, or plant tissue culture (PTC), for cannabis, hemp and traditional crops. 

The two companies will work together to jointly market the 3 Rivers offering to growers and eventually provide access to other commercial-ready solutions in pest control, pathogen testing and genetic fingerprinting. 

READ: Australis Capital buys 51% stake in cannabis facility design/construction company ALPS

Under the terms of the partnership, Australis will own 15% and 3 Rivers will own 85% of the joint venture. 3 Rivers will provide access to its intellectual property and services, products and solutions to Australis-sourced clients through the joint venture.

Innovations include all current 3 Rivers offerings, as well as access to future products such as PTC-based auto-flowering genetics, which provides a clonal hemp or cannabis plant that will flower independent of day length – a “potential game-changer for outdoor growers,” according to Australis.

PTC involves growing a plant from a small number of cells, rather than from seeds or clones, under strictly controlled sterile conditions in a nutrient medium. Among the benefits, PTC can help increase facility return on investment, efficiencies and risk mitigation, as well as giving growers the ability to remove pathogens from existing cultivars and preserve rare plant species.

The method also accelerates propagation once a plant is in tissue culture and shortens the breeding cycle.

Australis will contribute sales and marketing capabilities and business development through its industry network.

Science-based micropropagation

Australis interim CEO Duke Fu told investors that the new partnership will “set the standard for science-based micropropagation.”

“Being able to offer the propagation of cannabis through tissue culture at commercially viable scale is something that many companies and scientists have attempted, but that very few, if any, have managed to accomplish,” Fu said in a statement. “This makes the 3 Rivers capabilities unique.”

Fu added that the ability to offer cultivation partners with PTC reduces the need for cultivars to take up space in their facilities' mother rooms, increasing the yield of any given facility. “This JV further cements AUSA's position as an authentic differentiator by offering a unique value add service that is exceptionally difficult to replicate."

Australis estimates that, with over 1,000 cannabis companies, close to 600,000 acres planted with hemp in North America and Europe alone and 1.3 million acres of global greenhouse vegetable area, the industry opportunity is “substantial.”

Robert Allen, CEO of 3 Rivers, added: "By teaming up with AUSA, we believe we will be able to access new sales and marketing channels and rapidly expand our global footprint for PTC of cannabis, hemp and traditional crops.”

Las Vegas-based Australis’ business and assets include investments in Cocoon, Body and Mind Inc, Quality Green, Folium Biosciences, and land assets in Washington and Michigan. It is also closing deals to acquire an interest in facility design firm ALPS and US multistate operator Green Therapeutics Ltd.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

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