Clever Leaves, a multinational operator and licensed producer of pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids, is announcing the wind-down of all operations in Portugal as part of its ongoing restructuring initiatives. Under this restructuring plan, the company expects its Portuguese flower cultivation, post-harvest processes, and manufacturing activities to cease in full by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
In conjunction with its restructuring plan and wind-down in Portugal, the company announced a collective dismissal of 63 employees associated with its Portuguese operations.
Beginning in the second quarter of 2023, the company will solely cultivate its flower strains in its Colombian greenhouses, where preparations for dry flower exports have been underway for the past 18 months. Clever Leaves believes it remains on track to commence sales of dry flower from Colombia later this quarter, and it has begun the process of transitioning its flower production to Colombia for current customers.
The company’s Colombian operations span over 1.8 million square feet of fully built-out cultivation capacity, with EU-GMP certifications for the production of both cannabis extracts and dry flower. The company believes Colombia’s low labor costs and optimal agricultural climate give Clever Leaves a critically important competitive advantage, which allows the company to provide its customers cost-efficient, environmentally sustainable production processes.
In addition, the company’s Colombian operations house a genetic discovery and development platform, comprised of both outside strains from major cannabis brands and in-house developed products. The Company expects that the successful output from this discovery program will expand further as Clever Leaves accelerates its dry flower production.
