VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- Isracann Biosciences Inc., an Israel-based company focused on becoming a premier low cost, high quality cannabis producer for both domestic and European export sales, has announced it has entered into an MOU for a joint venture with an additional farm property consisting of a late stage buildout of a cannabis cultivation facility in an agricultural center proximal to several licensed producers (LP’s) west of Be’er Sheva, Israel. Under the joint venture, the company will capitalize the buildout of the remaining construction in return for an economic interest in the project in compliance with Israeli laws. Terms of the joint venture will be released upon signing of a definitive agreement, which is subject to continued due diligence of the Be’er Sheva Farm by the company.
The Be’er Sheva Farm consists of over 880,000 square feet of agricultural land with two recently assembled steel greenhouse structures having a footprint of nearly 200,000 square feet. Upon full build-out the facility will represent an approximate 100% increase in the company’s current potential production capacity from its existing Nir Israel farm. The Be’er Sheva Farm also provides unused land with the potential for four times cultivation expansion capability. The new facility is designed to cannabis production standards and is ready to be enclosed with high quality application-specific polycarbonate cladding. The facility has all construction and land use permits in-place and an experienced and knowledgeable cultivation team which has local agronomic expertise with regional cannabis operations.
Isracann CEO Darryl Jones advises, “Our agronomic consultants brought this enterprise to our attention recently and the economics of the opportunity impressed us enough to move quickly to lock in a partnership. The facility is poised to greatly expand our existing footprint and advances our timeline to production by several months.”
Isracann has moved quickly to develop a definitive agreement subject to completion of commercial due diligence. A preliminary assessment by Isracann’s agronomic team projects full scale planting during the upcoming 2020 spring season. Initial production projections indicate a first-year yield consistent with the Company’s Nir Israel farm projected output.
Matt Chatterton, VP Operations for Isracann recently visited the Be’er Sheva Farm and comments, “We’ve been evaluating several opportunities to expedite our commercialization plans and based on my inspection of the property this farm offers the ability to shorten our time-to-market. The fundamentals are already in place, including building permits, and the basic infrastructure is already constructed which accelerates timing. Once we conclude our due diligence efforts, the proposed plan will be to advance the technical efforts including completion of the greenhouse and concurrently implementing a project characterization strategy in preparation to planting. There is still a lot of work to complete, but our efforts at our Nir Israel farm have already provided us with regional business relationships, experienced advisors, and extensive preparations that we can readily extend and implement across both locations.”
“The region has already proven suitable for high quality cannabis production,” continues Jones. “Of significant interest is that the farm operator will participate in the arrangement and is a highly experienced manager of cost effective large-scale agricultural operations within the region. There are also several corporate and economic advantages open to us as we move ahead to finalize our definitive agreement. The opportunity to achieve production sooner than anticipated is a very attractive part of this strategic acquisition and directly reflects our commitment to our partners, stakeholders and shareholders alike as we grow our presence as cannabis industry leaders in Israel."
