business

March 29, 2019

5 min read

Where does Medigrow loyalty lies?

Where does Medigrow loyalty lies?

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Way back in the fifties my grandmother received a special license to buy and use cannabis. She made a tea brew and drank it for her asthma. I think that triggered my interest in something illegal and since then I tried to find out anything related to cannabis. I have been following the global cannabis movement and Rick Simpson that started extracting the black oil, how to brew it and use it, had a huge influence on my own cannabis experimentation. I have helped, illegally of course, quite a few people with cannabis oil and planted my own stuff, where and how I will rather not elaborate on.

I was over the moon when Lesotho legalized - other countries will follow soon on the African continent. The legalization and licensing was
long overdue in my opinion. I have followed the development in Lesotho with keen interest and found the articles that stated the following: Medigrow Lesotho (Pty) Ltd, a federally licensed producer of cannabis in Lesotho, is poised to become one of the largest producers of high quality contaminant free medical cannabis oil for a global distribution to the benefit of the local community and the country. (The dawn of cannabis economy – Metro, May 2018).

On the extract above there is a few interesting points I want to raise. The first is the 'contaminant free medical cannabis oil' the article talks about. In my opinion it is impossible to grow contaminant free medical cannabis oil in a greenhouse. The spraying and feeding programmed will contaminate the product in a greenhouse, you cannot get pass that.

The building blocks are chemical and the final product will be influenced accordingly and no extraction process can clean this
contaminants. So to say that they want to grow contaminated free oil is not possible... The reality is that if the waste water from the feeding programmes are not treated the heavy element build-up in the water due to the feeding and spraying programs it will be released back into the ecosystem in Lesotho. So from my point of view this will lead to the production of contaminated oil with the wastewater contaminating the ground water in Lesotho, if not cleaned.

The seedlings, according to the Medigrow’s Master Grower Mr. Cornel Van Der Watt, are stacked in propagated boxes for clone cutting prior to transplanting and taking into account that everything is sterile to avoid contamination by applying pest control methods such as planting coriander among others.(The dawn of cannabis economy – Metro, May 2018).

It is the first time I hear about companion planting at greenhouses. Insects can be repelled by some companion plants but most greenhouse use bio net to keep insects out. Pathogens cannot be repelled by any kind of companion plant. If you leave your bread inside a closed plastic bag and left at a high temperature it forms mold on it, so whatever you do you can only control pathogens with a spraying program. Water can be cleaned by a reverse osmoses plant or ultraviolet light to destroy pathogens. Mr Bothma said his vision is to see Medigrow Lesotho developing into a market leader in cannabis products. “I would like to see the company become a leading producer of pharmaceutical grade products derived from cannabis, hemp and other natural substances.”

Asked why Lesotho is regarded as a suitable base for production of medical marijuana, he said the country has a favourable
legislative framework, conducive climate with an abundance of clean water and low input costs. (March 5, 2019- Lesotho
Times). I think a big concern for Lesotho is that Medigrow is starting to apply for licenses in other African countries. According to the
extract above, Medigrow is committed to Lesotho, but the word is out that they are pursuing licenses in Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Uganda. That for me bode a bad sign for Lesotho. In most other African countries to the north you do not need the cost intensive green houses like in Lesotho due to the weather conditions.

I have not seen greenhouses run optimal in a natural greenhouse environment. Why in this world would you even think about green houses in sub-tropical environments? The humidity and heat during the summer would cause immense problems with plant pathogens like mold and spider mite, due to high temperatures you will need to cool. Using the popular pad and fan for cooling and with natural high humidity will cause more spraying to control pathogens and that means more contamination, does not make sense.

Greenhouse management is not easy, it is intensive management and not for the faint hearted. Comparing the cost of cannabis
production in greenhouses vs open field it is a much cheaper and less resource intensive than in open field production. Let’s look at the illegal markets in Marokko and Afganistan. Morocco produces a substantial portion of the world's hashish; it was the top producer for the 2002-2010 period before a 2012 study placed Afghanistan as the top producer. Morocco's 2010 production was 760 tons of cannabis resin.[9] In 2003, 70% of Europe's hashish consumed was produced in Morocco. (Wikipedia).


 

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Looking at the motor industry, the logistics behind moving 120 000 cars to South Africa from Japan will be a logistical nightmare. (133
603 units in 2018 sold by Toyota in SA) Production of Toyota cars in countries outside Japan is therefore a logical choice. With cannabis where oil is exported, 10ha of oil can be easily moved via airfreight to destination countries.

Why would Medigrow want to aggressively expand into other countries if logistics, water, production cost, labour cost and labour skills are
not a problem? (The dawn of cannabis economy – Metro, May 2018) There is huge potential for open field production focusing on medicinal cannabis and I base it on Marokko and Afganistan current production volumes. The logical explanation is that Medigrow is using Lesotho as a platform to establish themselves in the cannabis medicinal market and then expand into Africa. Why? With much lower CAPEX needed for establishing a production unit, less management and controls and a lot less employees, producing cannabis open field
looks very, very attractive. Because they are already established in the market it would be easy to move their established clients away from Lesotho to cheaper producing units elsewhere in Africa and earn much more per ha spend. Over the longer run they will lose interest in Lesotho, else why apply for licenses inother African countries?

Medigrow will most probably leave Lesotho for the greener pastures of other countries like Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Uganda. This is a
problem Lesotho and other countries will face if companies like Medigrow is not loyal to their licensing country, in this instance Lesotho.

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