South Taranaki-based medicinal cannabis company Greenfern Industries has announced it has secured an agreement to supply its Taranaki-grown medicinal cannabis with an initial two-year binding offtake order for its product.

The medicinal cannabis company told the NZX on Tuesday that the product was going to be used in an “overseas medicinal market” and, depending on which chemotypes were supplied, the agreement could be worth $1.6 million over the contract's duration. 

“As we go from strength to strength in what is very much a sunrise industry here in New Zealand, the progress that we are achieving is a testament to the solid foundations we have laid to date,” managing director Dan Casey said.

He said the agreement showed a clear path to revenue for Greenfern’s cultivation business and from this, the company will scale accordingly to meet overseas demand.

The company is planning to raise new capital in the second half of this year and its first cultivation facility will be used until the second, larger facility comes online.

Casey said it was “quite a strategy” to not get too far ahead of themselves and overcapitalise on infrastructure before the markets were ready and regulations had been met.

“But, at the same time, you don’t want to miss opportunities as they present themselves,” he said. “It’s a real balancing act.”

The company said in its announcement that it was preparing a medicinal cannabis consignment for testing so that NZ’s minimum quality standards could be met and, after this is completed, the first batch will be ready for shipment.