Of all the modes of cultivating cannabis, aeroponics certainly stands out as one of the most complicated. A substantial upfront investment and skilled personnel to operate it are the two main factors. Many things can go wrong with such a setup; however, the fruits of that labor can easily be recognized for their high quality. Bassani, a medical cannabis grower from South Africa, is well aware of that, which is what drove them to select an aeroponics setup when they built their facility. Little did they know, however, that aeroponics is not particularly suitable for a greenhouse—it's much better indoors. "My advice to any aeroponics facility is to never do it in a greenhouse," says Mike Stringer from Bassani with a chuckle. "We paid our school fees and learned a lot throughout our journey. Right now, we can safely produce high-quality cannabis in aeroponics in our greenhouse. To get here, however, was quite costly, which is something not everyone can really afford."
Challenging but higher quality
Mike explains that $15 million was invested in the facility, employing skilled people with a background in the pharmaceutical industry—just like Mike. "My biggest concern is providing people with safe and clean products. The market is flooded with irradiated products because it can be tough to control the microbial content of flowers. Our decision to go the aeroponics route is based on the fact that there's just way too much at stake, and if you grow your cannabis in some soil-based medium, then you are susceptible to a whole array of soilborne pathogens."
And while aeroponics is safer in that regard, it still has its challenges, as Mike explains. "Aeroponics, too, can be prone to disease, especially root rot and bud rot." The reason for that is that plant transpiration is quite high in an aeroponics setting, requiring the room to be properly dehumidified consistently. "If your extraction system is not effective, you can have extremely high humidity. In the last two weeks of flowering, your humidity needs to be as low as possible, but if you can't control that, bud rot is your biggest enemy. If you don't have control over these variables, things can get quite complicated. In a greenhouse, for instance, you basically use extract fans to get rid of the moisture. On top of that, you may need to use dehumidifiers, which are very expensive to run. Roughly, you'd need four of those in each room. Aeroponics in a greenhouse simply doesn't work—you'd constantly find yourself battling diseases and all the other elements that impact your yield."
Finding the key
On the other hand, aeroponics works perfectly indoors. "And yet, we managed to find a way to grow in aeroponics in a greenhouse. We've found engineering solutions that are the beating heart of our processes." Bassani went with a greenhouse to grow their cannabis in aeroponics. As Mike pointed out, it was a challenge initially to find the right balance and the right processes to allow such a setup to work with their infrastructure.
"Thanks to our IP solutions, our facility is recognized as one of the best in the country by our German, Israeli, and Australian customers. Despite the stringent regulations on contaminants in cannabis, our flowers don't get irradiated—exactly because all the processes have been fine-tuned to the fullest, ensuring that every single flower produced here is clean, safe to consume, and of top-notch quality."
Pharma is coming
Producing premium medical cannabis is crucial now that the pharmaceutical industry is getting ready to enter this space. "If you have a good facility, you can be a good supplier for big pharma," Mike points out. "You are going to see the beginning of the takeover of the medical cannabis industry by big pharma in 2028—that's when their first clinical trial becomes effective. The market will inevitably change starting from that year. For instance, Pfizer bought a cannabis research institute for over 5 billion euros, and there are 158 different clinical trials going on currently. They will entirely take over the medical cannabis side of the business." The takeover is almost a necessity for the big pharma industry, after all, as with all the money involved and invested, they cannot really afford to play alongside legacy operators. "I believe that in five years or so, many medical cannabis suppliers will be bought by or merged into big pharma," Mike remarks.
However, that's not a perspective to be afraid of, as there will still be plenty of business to do for medical cannabis growers. "You've got nothing to fear if you do the right thing." And everybody knows cannabis is not only medical—there's the whole adult-use space where cannabis growers will still find lots of opportunities. "Roughly, one can say that the ratio between medical and recreational consumers is 20% and 80%," Mike says. "The adult-use market is always going to be there. As more countries legalize and the illicit market shrinks, prices will go up, with legitimate cannabis sources ready to seize the momentum."
Highly compliant cannabis growers will indeed be the ones who benefit the most from this market, especially if the U.S. goes through with rescheduling. "The import block will go away, and cannabis will fall under the authority of the FDA. Many U.S. growers will realize they won't be compliant enough, opening up opportunities for international players."
Bassani is gearing up to tackle this market of the future. Mike shares that the company is in the process of concluding an agreement with international tissue culture company Segra while planning to expand with the construction of an indoor facility to do tissue culture for internal production and also for other clients. "Our plan is to ultimately produce all the tissue culture necessary in South Africa. As we prove we are more than capable of doing that, given our experience in system engineering with our aeroponics facility, we'll also expand into other European markets."
For more information:
Bassani
info@bassanimedical.com
bassanimedical.com