Creso Pharma Ltd’s (ASX:CPH) (OTCMKTS:COPHF) (FRA:1X8) wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Mernova Medicinal Inc has made a strategic decision to expand its current operations and target the Canadian hash market.
The decision follows a comprehensive review of the significant market opportunities available across Canada and very positive customer feedback regarding Mernova’s current product range.
Feedback from end-users and resellers is that initial orders will occur immediately upon Mernova’s launch into hash.
The legal hash market in Canada is currently under-supplied and lacks high-quality products despite significant demand.
Launch of hash products early 2021
Mernova managing director Jack Yu said: “The introduction of 2.0 products to our existing line of premium offerings will further diversify our current range, increase the options available to consumers and provide additional sources of revenue to Mernova.
“In order to best preserve the quality and natural characteristics of the cannabis utilised, we will be focusing on 2.0 products that require little or no processing.
“We look forward to launching our premium hash and pre-roll joints in early 2021.”
Can be legally produced and sold
Hash, a chemical-free, solventless extract produced by physically separating and collecting trichomes from cannabis flowers and applying heat and pressure, can now be legally produced and sold in Canada.
It has the ability to improve and appreciate, with age, and if properly stored, can be kept for up to 12 years or longer.
Being a concentrate, it has higher cannabinoid content than the starting material.
Opportunity to emerge as market leader
Mernova will work to capitalise on this growing demand for hash and further diversify its product lines and identify opportunities to progress sales in various provinces/territories across Canada, including its current markets of Nova Scotia and the Yukon, as well as the imminent and future markets of Ontario and New Brunswick.
The company has received considerable interest in its soon-to-be-launched hash products to date.
The Canadian legal hash market is emerging and anticipated to grow rapidly in the near-term, providing Mernova with an opportunity to emerge as a market leader.
Mernova will progress production of premium hash from its state of the art facility in Windsor, Nova Scotia, with the launch of the new products expected to occur in the first quarter of 2021.
Growing interest in hash globally
Hash has recently grown in popularity in the legal market across Canada, as part of the new wave of cannabis-derived products.
In the US, hash use is on the rise due to an overall increase in global interest in cannabis, increased availability due to legalisation in many states, and demand among older consumers familiar with the cannabis concentrate.
In Europe, the black market for hash is one of the world's largest and most profitable, worth an estimated €2.3 billion in 2017.