Making it with medical cannabis
Cannabis has been touted as the next big money-spinner in agriculture, with many farmers looking for a way to cash in on this market. Producing medical cannabis, however, presents a number of hurdles, of which infrastructural cost and operating expenditure are probably the most daunting.
Michael Holmes, CEO of medical cannabis producer Neopharm, which is currently producing its first crop, says the first phase of his company’s investment in a 400m² production and processing facility the Cape Winelands cost close to R70 million. This was a staggering 200% more than they had envisaged.
He identifies security costs as one of the biggest drivers of unforeseen expenses. “We had to fence in the facility and establish secure access control points. We invested in more than 80 security cameras and other technologies to enable the monitoring of activities in
