Chris Lowrey
PONTIAC Oct. 27, 2018
LiveWell Foods, the company aiming to build a cannabis greenhouse and research centre in Litchfield has inked a cannabidiol (CBD) supply deal with a private equity firm in the United States.
The deal, which was signed on Oct. 27, features a partnership between LiveWell and Vitality CBD Natural Health Products Inc. The two companies signed a deal with Global Wellness Distributors – a private equity firm from Nevada – to provide supply of CBD wholesale products.
Global Wellness will distribute CBD products in exchange for a $3 million deposit to LiveWell for the initial CBD supply.
The terms of the deal stipulate that Global Wellness will distribute at least 1,000 kg of CBD products per month as of January 2019.
From April 2019 to March 2020, the minimum quantity will increase to 3,000 kg.
All CBD products included in the deal will be derived from industrial hemp and have a THC content no higher than 0.3 per cent.
The deal comes as questions have been raised about the viability of LiveWell’s Litchfield project.
It was revealed late last month that construction at LiveWell’s facility at the Pontiac Industrial Park has been halted.
LiveWell Chief Administrative Officer Michel Lemieux said the construction stoppage was due to a change in cultivation regulations by Health Canada.
“Recently, what happened was the Canadian regulations allowed us to grow indoors and outdoors,” Lemieux said in October. “So we have to redesign the project.”
The only changes that Health Canada spokesperson André Gagnon could point to were made in November of 2017.
“[There] hasn’t been any shift concerning outdoor production since the proposed approach was published in 2017,” Gagnon said.
When asked, LiveWell representatives were unable to point to the specific regulatory changes that forced the construction stoppage.
“We are having positive and ongoing discussions with the new government of Quebec regarding the project in Litchfield,” said LiveWell director of communications Deborah Stokes in an email.
“We are still assessing the new rules regarding outdoor growing in the Cannabis Act,” Stokes added.
