Agra Ventures Ltd, a growth-oriented and diversified company focused on the international cannabis industry, applauds Health Canada’s recently announced regulatory changes that will have the effect of streamlining the application process for cannabis processors to bring products to market more quickly. On March 31, 2022, Health Canada communicated that it would begin granting all standard and micro-class processing license holders sales authorizations for dried and fresh cannabis products during the initial licensing process. Therefore, licensees such as AGRA will no longer have to apply for an amendment in order to sell to wholesalers. The planned improvements to the licensing process are scheduled to go into effect on April 19, 2022.

Existing licences that do not currently authorize the sale of dried and fresh cannabis products will be reissued with amended conditions within the next 90 days. Once a holder’s licence has been amended, and 60 days have passed after submitting a Notification of New Cannabis Product for any dried or fresh cannabis product, the holder will be able to sell those products into provincial markets, pending local approval. However, an amendment will still be required in order to sell cannabis extracts, cannabis topicals and edible cannabis products. The changes are part of the federal regulator’s ongoing efforts to improve Canada’s cannabis program based on consultations with and feedback from the industry.

Management Commentary

“The regulatory changes recently announced by Health Canada are a welcome improvement of the licensing process for AGRA and the entire Canadian cannabis industry. Although we remain focused on our business-to-business strategy of growing great cannabis and selling it in dried form to other licensed producers in Canada, the changes give us optionality that we didn’t have before, which I believe adds value to our organization,” said Elise Coppens, CEO of AGRA. “Our team commends Health Canada on its open-mindedness, applauds the outcome of its process and endorses the changes that have emerged and are planned to be in effect shortly,” added Ms. Coppens.