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Moving forward with a new phase of expansion, Organigram Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: OGI; TSX: OGI) is about to see a significant increase to growing capacity at the company’s Moncton facility. 

Today Organigram was granted Health Canada approval for 17 additional grow rooms at that facility, bumping up the site’s estimated production capacity to 76,000 kg of dried cannabis product per year. 

Organigram began moving organic material into the new rooms today, with a first harvest from those cannabis plants expected in late November. 

With the new federal approval for additional cultivation space now in hand, Organigram’s Chief Executive Officer Greg Engel issued this statement:

Once again, we are pleased to receive licensing approval consistent with our expectations and the streamlined process we have experienced to date. Our Phase 4 facility expansion remains on schedule to meet growing demand and further contribute to efficiencies of scale.

In addition to the 17 rooms now licensed through Health Canada, another 16 are still awaiting approval following a license amendment request form Organigram. 

This latest phase of construction at Moncton is slated to be finished by the end of September, with the company’s Phase 5 construction plans to kick off next year for adding production of edible products. 

Following the initial harvest from new rooms in November, the process of drying, packaging, and shipping are expecting to be completed by February of 2020. 

That multi-month delay between rooms receiving licensing and product actually becoming available for customers means the expansion is unlikely to have an immediate effect on inventory for sale or the company’s stock price.  

While the legalized industry saw a massive stock bump following the Cannabis Act going into effect last October, prices on the whole have been in free fall as slow Health Canada approvals and high prices see the industry struggling to compete with non-licensed sales. 

OGI has been an outlier in the overall Canadian cannabis market with its stock price, however. While Organigram stock has followed the clear industry trend of falling sharply since May, today’s price of $4.95 a share is actually on par with where it was sitting a year ago. 

In other recent stock news, late last month Organigram moved up from the TSX Venture Exchange to a full Toronto Stock Exchange listing. 

About Author

Ty Arthur

Ty Arthur

Ty Arthur has spent the last decade of his journalism career covering everything from cutting-edge tech to local news through outlets such as the Houston Chronicle. He has focused on the counterculture aspects of society, from marijuana legalization to underground music through Metalunderground.com and rapidly changing trends in the entertainment industry. He lives in the cold, dark north with his wife and son.

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