There are plenty of stories about cannabis growers who previously grew tomatoes at scale and then transitioned into cannabis, applying traditional horticultural knowledge to this highly valuable crop. While Australian grower MedTEC Pharma can be included in the list of traditional horticultural growers entering the cannabis industry, their journey is quite unique, as tomatoes weren't the beginning for them. It was actually citrus.
From citrus to cannabis
"The family citrus farm was established in 1978," says Brad Gallard, founder of MedTEC Pharma. "After 30 years, I felt ready to do something other than citrus, so I started looking into the world of cannabis, bulldozing 20,000 citrus trees to make way for the cannabis venture." In their place, there are now around 12,000 cannabis plants growing as high as 1.5–2 meters, and covering about 30% of the available space. The decision to set up the cannabis farm there was dictated by favorable weather conditions, good soil quality, and access to water sources. "We know the area, we know the most common pests here—everything is perfect to grow cannabis," says Brad.
Growing outdoors under protective netting providing 15% shade to protect plants from the scorching sun, Brad and MedTEC are highly aware of what needs to be done to achieve a bumper crop. Initially, however, self-doubt made them feel they were venturing into uncharted horticultural territory.
"I thought this was going to be a whole new learning curve," Brad says. "But once we got into it and started to see that our experience and skill set were helpful, we realized that this is a plant after all. I've looked at what my father passed down to me, and that has been absolutely instrumental in pivoting smoothly from citrus to cannabis. If you look at the watering program, crop rotation, and biologicals to fight pests, growing cannabis is not that different from growing citrus trees."
Cryo-trimming
There are obviously significant differences in the nuances of cannabis cultivation, but even there, similarities to citrus farming have made Brad more conscious of what is needed to make the company successful. "Because we grow outdoors, we don't grow year-round. Rather, we harvest once a year—we are currently six weeks away from our harvest. We are very aware of the risk of cross-contamination, as well as what could be in the soil. Fortunately, we have quite a few hectares, so we can move around if we see any issues with the soil. In other words, we let it rest and move to another patch if necessary."
At the same time, the fact that citrus trees used to grow there was already an indication that the soil was healthy enough to accommodate medical cannabis cultivation. If cultivation wasn't a major challenge for Brad and MedTEC Pharma, what came after cultivation was a bit of a question mark for them—namely, post-harvest processing. Harvesting tons of cannabis once a year, the bottleneck was figuring out how to dry and preserve it properly until the next cultivation cycle began.
"We asked ourselves, how do we get a high-quality flower that stays that way year-round?" Brad recounts. "That's when we thought about freeze dryers. We did some research and found out that you can also trim frozen—it was a much better way to go about it." In other words, MedTEC Pharma freezes their flowers immediately after harvesting, allowing them to take them out of storage as needed. "They can stay in this condition for days, even months. When you pull them out, the flowers look as fresh as if they were harvested a moment ago," explains Brad. This is when a process called cryo-trimming, a bladeless process, takes place, which means the company trims their flowers under freezing temperatures.
"It's a bit cold to work that way," says Brad. The results, however, speak for themselves. "You can tell if a cannabis flower has been trimmed in a traditional fashion or if it was cryo-trimmed." After that, the flower is placed in a freeze dryer that removes all moisture in less than 24 hours. "What we get is a freeze-dried product that looks much fresher, with a higher terpene and cannabinoid content than if it had been processed traditionally."
The Australian market
Such meticulous attention to detail is crucial in a market that is becoming increasingly competitive. "There was a report three years ago claiming there were 600,000 patients using medical cannabis," says Dirk Beelen, CCO of MedTEC Australia. "That number has now closed in on 1 million people—while there's another group utilizing grey market solutions." The safe assumption is that the market has been growing substantially, and Dirk believes this is mainly due to regulations.
"Initially, most cannabis was imported from overseas. Now, companies like ours have upped their game, and much more product is being locally produced. On top of that, it has become much harder to obtain an import license. There's a trend toward local growers, which is not progressing as fast as we'd like, but there's certainly a positive vibe about it."
Not all that glitters is gold, however, as prices have slightly declined recently. "That's why you have to be efficient and keep as much of the cannabis chain in-house," says Brad. MedTEC Pharma indeed relies on its own distribution, unlike many other Australian players that leave distribution to contract service providers.
"We are not totally vertically integrated," Dirk points out. That has a lot to do with the way Australian regulations were conceived, as only pharmacies can sell directly to customers—and those cannot be owned by cannabis companies. "We have large distribution centers that then deliver our branded products to pharmacies." This has certainly helped MedTEC Pharma navigate the current slight market compression—something not all growers anticipated or outright underestimated, according to Dirk.
"Since we are privately owned, we can also pivot as the market shifts," says Brad. "When we applied for our license in 2019, it was all about oils and distillates—that's how we designed the facility. Luckily, we didn't spend all our money early on that equipment," he continues with a chuckle. The market indeed shifted in favor of flowers and, more recently, toward solventless-extracted products. For now, the company is eagerly awaiting the harvest, but expansion plans are well within reach—both in terms of facility and market.
"We expect a harvest of 15 tons of dried flowers, so that's our focus at the moment," explains Brad. At the same time, the company is in the process of building an indoor cultivation facility as well as a GMP area. "The plans are all approved, and we are waiting for the GMP area to be certified. As soon as this cultivation cycle is over, we'll fully focus on our expansion plans." Not much time may pass before that happens—before the end of the year, the new MedTEC Pharma indoor cultivation facility could be up and running, Brad concludes.
For more information:
MedTEC Pharma
43 Greenhill Road, Wayville, SA, 5034, Australia
medtecpharma.com.au