Multifaceted cannabis company AltoVerde is establishing a network of cultivation facilities across Europe that will produce medical cannabis and CBD products.
AltoVerde has established a network of cultivation sites across Europe to create one of the largest European medical cannabis supply chains.
Established by co-founder and CEO Mitesh Makwana, founder of Dr. Krippling seedbank, and vice-chairman and CEO Bryan Willis, owner of Seedmadness, AltoVerde has decades of collective experience in the legacy market.
The company will be leveraging its expertise in cannabis to provide patients in Europe with high-quality cannabis products at a fair price.
Read more: Biologists identify “hacks” cannabis uses to make cannabinoids
The company is aspiring to lead product innovation and develop trusted, quality products that disrupt the current market offerings – all of which will be stamped with “AltoVerde Assured”. The products will be developed in line with consumers’ expectations and will be designed to be equally, if not more appealing than the existing offerings.
Educating consumers, medical professionals, governments and industry on the benefits and safety of cannabis products and a fully open cannabis industry is also a priority for AltoVerde.
Establishing a leading team
With long-standing and well-established reputations and relationships in the legacy cannabis industry, Mitesh and Bryan set out on a mission to start up a serious cannabis company focusing on quality, consumers and full compliance of medical and business regulations. AltoVerde has a team with vast experience and knowledge that will bring forward meaningful products for patients.
Makwana commented: “We have pulled together a close-knit team with various skills and expertise relevant to the cannabis industry that can execute our business plan and deliver our vision and mission, which is to bring high-quality products to patients at a fair price whilst being transparent in our production.
“Our expertise comes from cannabis cultivars and knowing how consumers are very discerning about the end product – it is not just about the science, safety and efficacy benefits, well-being, effects on disease, cannabinoid levels, consistency etc., it is also about its appearance, its smell, its taste, the method of delivery and the overall effects.
“This is our forte.”
The AltoVerde team has extensive experience in cannabis cultivation. Makwana has been cultivating with hydroponics since the early 2000s and has established one of the UK’s leading seed banks Dr. Krippling.
“When visiting Spain in 2010 I met with a team of cannabis breeders. That’s when my focus turned to breeding projects – so my passion has always been plants,” said Makwana.
Daniel Bourguet, AltoVerde’s cannabis expert, is the founder of Seeds Of Africa Seedbank, with heirloom and landrace genetics, and extraction experience, and Jeff Winterbourne, AltoVerde’s horticultural advisor established the first cannabis seed bank within the UK in 1998.
Winterbourne is also the inventor of one of the most copied hydroponics systems in the world, author of two bestselling books: Hydroponics – Indoor Horticulture and Medical Marijuana – Cannabis Cultivation and formulator/founder of the Grow ProActive plant nutrient range.
Additional team members include Dr Callie Seaman, a plant scientist and formulation chemist (formulator and founder of the ShoGun plant nutrient range) with over 20 years of experience in the hydroponic industry, and Dominik Hedderich, AltoVerde’s horticulturalist expert, with extensive experience and knowledge in all aspects of cultivation and a keen interest in cannabis.
“Alongside the daily backing and assistance from AltoVerde’s experts, each site will have its head agronomist, pharmacist and various assistants too,” said Makwana.
“The suppliers that we have chosen to work with are going to enable us to always keep ahead of the game with our research, development and innovation.
“Even though commercial growing has been popular in America and Canada for many years, no one can yet say that they’re growing perfect cannabis – we’re still improving on tomato cultivation.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see what happens now that there are commercial, legal licence operations and we are able to cultivate on a far grander scale than the legacy industry could.”
Building a cultivation network
AltoVerde’s five cultivation sites will be growing cannabis through a mix of indoor, greenhouse and organic cultivation. The five sites include MarijuPharma and A&J Greenhouse located in North Macedonia, ProCann and SolAce in Denmark and AgroVerde Market (AgroVerde) in Romania.
Three of the sites currently have cultivation licences in place and are poised to start work once equipped, and a further two sites are in the process of gaining certifications.
All medical cannabis products at the sites will be developed and processed under the “AltoVerde Process” and all sites will be guided, supervised and assisted by AltoVerde.
Klajdi Kalliri, managing director for East Europe, has been working at the MarijuPharma site in North Macedonia for the last four years, ensuring all regulatory affairs were in order, to achieve its licences, as well as assisting A&J Greenhouse.
Kalliri commented: “In North Macedonia, we have two projects. The first is MarijuPharma which is divided into two plots – one plot has a factory site of approximately 15,000 metres squared, and another plot just the other side of the road, which has a building of approximately 12,000 metre squared.
“The second North Macedonian facility, which is located in Gostivar, is on a plot of approximately 7000 metres square with greenhouses to be constructed, and there is the potential of expanding into a lot more space.”
The weekly production capacity at the sites is expected to be at least 1189 kg per week: 630 kg for the two Macedonia sites, 335 kg for the two Denmark sites and 224 kg at the Romania site.
Horti XS and Urban-Gro will both be assisting with the design and construction of the sites, alongside other suppliers and regulatory advisors.
Founder at Horti XS, Robert van der Lans, commented: “We will be drawing on our decades of expertise in technical greenhouse construction to support AltoVerde in building state-of-the-art cultivation facilities to create exceedingly high-quality medical cannabis products.”
Romania’s organic greenhouse, Agro Verde Market, is managed by Andreea Kalisch who established an eco-friendly greenhouse in 2019.
Kalisch commented: “In Romania there are two greenhouses already built and operating at the moment with organic tomatoes. One is 7000 square metres, and the other is larger. Government plans to introduce domestic medicinal cannabis cultivation in Romania are temporarily on hold (due to the Ukraine/Russia conflict) – once legislation passes and we have all the regulation in place, I will switch crops from organic tomatoes to organic medical cannabis in one of my greenhouses.”
Makwana added: “We are more or less designing the facilities from scratch. The beauty of our five cultivation sites is that we have blank canvases for all of them and we will build them up to our preference and in compliance of the highest standards of Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) and EU Good Manufacturing Practices (EU-GMP).
AltoVerde says that the five cultivation sites could capture over 6 per cent of the UK and Europe’s 2026 forecast market for unlicensed cannabis-based medicinal products, and the company will continue to expand according to medical and adult use market demands.
The company is expecting its first medical cannabis products to be ready by late 2023.
AltoVerde has provided financial support into the production and distribution of this article. AltoVerde has also had editorial input into the content of the article and has reviewed it for medical accuracy.
[activecampaign form=31]
