Macedonia has been hailed as the medical cannabis hub of Europe, thanks to its combination of good weather conditions and low cost of labor. It's no wonder that Ohrid Organics, a GACP, EU-GMP cannabis producer, decided to set up their hybrid greenhouse in this country. "We took ownership of this greenhouse after we invested in it in 2019," Dominic John, COO of Ohrid Organics says. "There were several things we wanted to improve in this facility. To do that, we needed to be in control and be able to make decisions in terms of capex." Some of the improvements Nick is talking about are related to the cultivation space, the lighting, and especially the post-harvest processes.
The greenhouse stands 1,000 meters above sea level, and while this may be the sweet spot for such an infrastructure, its full potential was hardly realized initially. "It was a half-functioning facility when I got here," says Anthony Shevlin, head of agronomy at Ohrid. "The product wasn't of good quality, and the cultivation team wasn't really working in unison. The whole thing was just not in the place where it was supposed to be. We needed to change the work culture, we needed to entirely change the mentality of the team to capitalize on this greenhouse."
Extreme Makeover
The saying, however, goes that it's easier said than done – and after all, there's a crumb of truth in sayings. "One of the biggest challenges was trying to grow in a facility that wasn't prepared for what I was going to do," Anthony continues. "For instance, the clone room, the humidity, the climate – none of that was really controllable." That's when Anthony and Dominic rolled up their sleeves and went full-on Extreme Makeover MMJ edition. "I refurbished the clone rooms, I got new genetics, new lights, and I set up a selective breeding process. This whole thing has taken one and a half years to get through."
However, the work was not done yet as one element needed to be addressed: the drying. Now, imagine you are setting up a top-notch hybrid greenhouse, you upgrade everything cultivation so that plants can grow beautifully, and then… everything goes up in the air when it gets to the drying. "When we overtook the facility, we had nowhere to dry the product. "We only had a small room, and given our increased output, which was not going to suffice at all," says Anthony. That's when they reached out to Nick Brousianos from CannaBreeze out of Athens to find a solution. He pointed Ohrid Organics to Cannabis-Drying.com. "We work a lot with Cannabis-Drying.com, and considering how challenging the grower's request was, only one company was up to the task."
Cannabis-Drying.com's drying system is vertical, meaning that it requires less horizontal space, thus optimizing the use of the room. Nick Abbingh from Cannabis-Drying.com explains: "Our drying unit is based on research demonstrating its superiority over traditional drying methods in various aspects. Studies indicate that our system eliminates wet patches on cannabis, thus inhibiting mold and bacteria growth, thanks to its precise regulation of temperature, humidity, and airflow. This flexibility allows growers to tailor the drying process to the specific genetic traits of their crops. Additionally, our drying installations offer a significant advantage in space efficiency, being up to ten times more compact than hang-drying setups. In the case of the Ohrid Organics project, we are drying 200kg (dry weight) on a space of 43M2." On top of that, Nick continues, the drying trays of the Cannabis-Drying.com unit are constructed from antistatic ABS thermoplastic material. Additionally, the HEPA filters ensure the incoming air is 100% purified. At the same time, one of the most important design features of this unit is that it quickly reduces the initial humidity of the flower, safeguarding the terpenes, while preventing the bud from flattening during the drying."
Drying the right way
The results Ohrid Organics is getting with the Cannabis-Drying.com units are outstanding, says Anthony, and all the terpenes in the final product are preserved in the best way. "I'm growing terpene-rich products, and I've never seen a product coming out of the drying process with such structural integrity, it's truly amazing. The product that comes out is 100% homogenous dried." However, before they got there, setting up the Cannabis-Drying.com unit in the existing drying room was a huge challenge, especially with regards to installing the HVAC there. "We didn't want to build a new post-harvest building, we wanted to push as many kilos in our existing room. However, there was no area to install the air conditioning units. So, we installed it in the ceiling, on top of the drying room." Ohrid Organics, Cannabis-Drying.com, and CannaBreeze stepped up together to achieve quite a difficult result. "It was a team effort from all sides," says Nick from CannaBreeze. "The installation was difficult as there was not enough space, plus all the documentation we needed, and so on. It was a team effort, in the end, everybody played a key role."
Now that Ohrid Organics is about to enter the market with their product, they are sure that the product they get out of the Cannabis-Drying.com unit will give them an edge over the competition, especially in those markets where superior quality is lacking. "As of now, we are eyeing the Australian and the Israeli market. That's a quasi-recreational market, and there's a great demand for premium quality cannabis. This also means that whatever does well in Israel, will also do well elsewhere," Dom concludes.
For more information:
Cannabis-Drying
www.cannabis-drying.com