P-burg plant, two others in Canada, slated to lead North American production within year
By KIRBY ROSS
Phillips County Review
PHILLIPSBURG — In Canada, the legal term for it is cannabis. In Kansas, hemp. And with Canadian corporate support and Australian financing, as well as Swedish technical know-how, in Phillips County it’s now called “local industry.”
Exactly one year ago on Thursday of last week, the possession, use, and sale of dry leaf form cannabis became legal in Canada, both for recreational purposes and medicinal.
Then on that one year anniversary other forms of Canadian cannabis — edibles — also became legal there, including cannabis cookies, pizza and soda pop, along with baking products, such cannabis flour, cooking oil, and butter.
Dovetailing into those developments in Canada, in April of last year Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer signed into law the “Alternative Crop Research Act” which allows the Kansas Department of Agriculture to oversee the cultivation of hemp for purposes of research.
A month later Gov. Colyer signed a related bill into law referred to as the “Updating Substances of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.” That bill exempted cannabinoidiol, aka CBD oil, from the definition of marijuana, effectively legalizing it. CBD oil had earlier begun being used in food and beverage products in the United States in 2017.
And, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, in 2018 the U.S. Farm Bill–
“…removed federal restrictions on the establishment of commercial hemp programs and allows individual states to develop a plan to license the commercial production of hemp and further directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a plan for states that do not do so.
“In order to establish a program for the commercial production of industrial hemp, Kansas must develop a plan through KDA, in consultation with the Governor and Attorney General. Any such plan must be submitted to USDA for approval.”
The Kansas Department of Agriculture further notes–
“The opportunity to grow a new specialty oilseed crop in Kansas offers potential for diversification for Kansas farmers looking for an alternative crop, or for new farming enterprises interested in cultivating industrial hemp.
“The Kansas agriculture industry has developed a statewide strategic growth plan in recent years, and is committed to pursuing new and innovative opportunities to grow agriculture.
“The research generated by participants of this new industrial hemp program will be valuable data in identifying the growth potential offered in this sector.”
Enter Phillips County into the story. On the one year anniversary of widespread legalization in Canada, and on the occasion of the expansion of legalized byproducts of cannabis/hemp in Canada and Kansas, MMJ Group Holdings Ltd of Nedlands, Australia, revealed it has partnered with Canada-based Embark Health Inc. in expanding its multi-million dollar cannabis extraction plant right here in rural Phillipsburg, Kansas.
In support of the project, Embark, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, has received a $10 million infusion of new capital from investors, including $3.6 million from MMJ.
With Canada legalizing the adult use of cannabis, Embark, a privately held company helmed by Bruce Dawson-Scully, of Delta, British Columbia, has been taking a leading worldwide role in providing cannabis and derivative products utilizing cannabis extracts for the marketplace.
Toward the purpose of manufacturing those extracts, Embark has been doing business in Phillips County since April 29, 2019, with, according to sources, the support of Canadian and Swedish nationals.
MMJ Group’s newest investment with Embark, to be finalized no later than October 31, 2019, will raise MMJ’s 12 percent holdings in Embark up to a total of $9.8 million, almost triple its book value.
MMJ’s infusion of funding in the project is part of the $10 million capital mobilization conducted by Embark to finance the build-out of its cannabis extraction facility south of Phillipsburg, as well as two Canadian sister-facilities in Delta, British Columbia, and Woodstock, Ontario.
Regarding MMJ’s investment in the Phillips County and Canadian extraction plants, MMJ Chairman Peter Wall says, “This is another example of MMJ’s strong market and financial discipline identifying opportunities and bottlenecks in the cannabis value-chain in markets and acting quickly.”
The company further notes that when the Phillipsburg cannabis production facility and the two others are operational, “Embark Health will be a significant cannabis extraction producer servicing the Canadian and global medical and recreational markets.”
Regarding the processing of cannabis, Chairman Wall foresees Phillipsburg, Woodstock and Delta as playing a dominant role across the entire continent within a year.
Says Wall, “Embark Health has executed its business plan and is well positioned to become one of the largest cannabis extraction businesses in North America within twelve months. The investment demonstrates MMJ’s expertise to secure a private negotiated investment in listed and unlisted cannabis businesses.”
Embark Chief Executive Officer Bruce Dawson-Scully is founder of WeedMD of Aylmer, Ontario, Canada, which he notes is a “pharma-grade medical cannabis production facility.” Dawson-Scully has also served as a healthcare consultant to the Chinese government.
In a public statement MMJ states it believes there to be “A much larger market for cannabis products as consumption methods like vapes, edibles, and drinkables will drive most of the adoption and consumption in the mainstream.” Currently the most common method of cannabis consumption is through rolling papers and water pipes.
MMJ states “Embark intends to have two state-of-the-art THC, CBD, and CBG extraction facilities to service Canada’s medical and recreational markets in Delta, British Columbia and Woodstock, Ontario, in addition to optimising a C1-D1 hempseed extraction facility in Phillipsburg, Kansas.”
According to MMJ, in Phillipsburg, “This facility, to be operational in late 2020, will extract hemp seeds and produce hemp protein isolates and cooking oil in addition to CBD isolate. This facility will process 5,000 pounds of biomass per day.”
In order to process that amount per day by this time next year, the cannabis to be used will soon be in full production.
Embark’s website, which has a dedicated page on its Phillipsburg operations (seen at the right), lists the nature of the hemp protein isolates the facility will be creating–
“Delicious, nutritious and nutty in flavour, our hemp seed isolate powder and baking flour are both naturally white and will not change the colour of your baked goods. Paced with 21g of protein per serving, it is vegan, non-gmo, gluten-free, soy-free, lactose-free, kosher, keto and paleo.”
Regarding the hemp seed cooking oil, Embark says it is “Unlike any hemp seed oil available today, Embark’s golden oil has a high cooking point — you can cook with this nutritious oil up to a flash point of 400 degrees.”
Stockopedia provides a business profile of the multi-million dollar investor in Phillips County business operations, MMJ Group Holdings–
“MMJ Group Holdings Limited, formerly MMJ PhytoTech Limited, focuses on developing and commercializing medical cannabis (MC) and MC-based therapeutics.
“Its principal activities include production and distribution of cannabinoid-based food supplements across the Europe, and Pharmaceutical research and development of delivery technologies for administration of cannabinoids.
“Its segments include Cultivation; Processing and Distribution; and Clinical Research.
“The Cultivation segment’s activities include the various applications for cultivation and distribution licenses under the marijuana for medical purposes regulations (MMPR) by Health Canada.
“The Processing and Distribution segment’s activities include processing, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis-based, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics product across the European market.
“The Clinical Research segment’s activities include clinical research of delivery systems and devices.”
“The company’s portfolio includes Harvest One, PhytoTech Therapeutics, WeedMe, Fire and Flower, Bien, BevCanna, and others.”
Article reprinted from the Phillips County Review, with permission. The Phillips County Review has been named by the Kansas Press Association as being the state’s top newspaper in its circulation class for 2019, beating out over 180 other publications.
Editor and writer Kirby Ross, has also personally won over 20 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence for his newspaper work over the past three years, including first place recognition for news reporting, news and writing excellence, feature writing, political and government reporting, investigative reporting, editorial writing and news photography. He can be reached at [email protected].