IL: Biggest research farm completed for R&D and production of stable cannabis seeds

Israeli genetic seeds company CanBreed has completed the construction of one of the largest fully licensed cannabis seed research, breeding, and seed production farms in Israel. The farm is located in Givat Chen, at the center of Israel.

CanBreed has been granted with a permit from the Israeli Medical Cannabis Regulatory authority to operate the farm and began examining the first 30 stable varieties it developed, in parallel to trialing the varieties at select commercial cannabis farms in the country. The new farm which spreads across 1.1 acres, is one of the largest medical cannabis farms in Israel that is intended primarily for the purpose of research and development.

After completing the trialing of the first varieties, the company will start producing the seeds of the selected varieties on a commercial scale for the local market. When the Israeli market will enable exporting cannabis seeds, the farm will also be used for the production and export of stable cannabis seeds to markets around the world.

At the end of 2020, the company announced the purchase of a 3.5 acre Hemp farm in San Diego at California at the cost of one million dollars. At the farm, CanBreed is setting up facilities to produce stable and uniform hemp seeds for the US market. The farm's initial output is expected to be about 12.5 million seeds annually, which will subsequently increase to about 50 million seeds annually. The farm will begin operations in mid-2021 and will produce stable Hemp seeds based on the company's knowledge and technology developed in Israel. The Hemp seed market in the US is estimated to be worth at least a billion dollars a year.

Lately, the company announced that after more than three years of strenuous research and development, it completed the development of the first known stable and uniform Cannabis hybrid seeds in the world. In doing so, the company brings a solution to the main problems of the Cannabis industry that suffers from a lack of uniformity and standardization due to the absence of genetic stability in Cannabis plants resulting also in high production costs that hamper growers' profits. Stable and uniform hybrid seeds, with improved genetics, are the solution to both these problems.

Additionally, during 2020 CanBreed announced it has been granted with a commercial license for the foundational CRISPR-Cas9 patents of Corteva Agriscience and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The developers of the CRISPR technology were awarded with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. CanBreed applies gene-editing tools, such as CRISPR, to provide growers with its genetic trait portfolio, YieldMax, that ensures low cost and high-quality production of cannabis, which will result in improved raw materials for the cannabis-based industries such as medical products.

Ido Margalit, CanBreed CEO, said: "The company is working hard to complete the trialing of the new stable varieties developed recently in parallel with the development of the CRISPR based YieldMax technology. The addition of the cannabis seed research, breeding and seed production farm, which is the largest cannabis research farm in the country, will help the company meet its goals and offer stable cannabis seeds to the cannabis industry as soon as possible."