VANCOUVER, British Columbia and ORLANDO, Fla., June 20, 2024 — Village Farms International, Inc. (“Village Farms” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: VFF) congratulates the Netherlands on its historic progress to the next phase of its legal recreational cannabis program (the “Dutch Program”). With successful completion of the start-up phase of the Dutch Program, the Netherlands has expanded the number of municipalities, in which regulated cannabis can be sold in “coffee shops”, from two to ten.
Through its majority owned subsidiary, Leli Holland, Village Farms holds one of ten licenses to cultivate and distribute recreational cannabis legally under the Dutch Program. Production at the Company’s first facility in Drachten is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2024, with sales to start in the first quarter of 2025.
“The Netherlands is a core part of our expanding international cannabis program, which includes both recreational and medicinal markets. We look forward to building on our unmatched success in Canada to contribute high quality, innovative and safe cannabis products to the Dutch Program when we enter the recreational market there early next year. In addition to our Netherlands production, we are leveraging our position as one of the few Canadian producers with EU-GMP certification for other existing European markets and new opportunities as they unfold,” said Michael DeGiglio, President and Chief Executive Officer, Village Farms.
About the Netherlands Dutch Closed Supply Chain Experiment
The Dutch Program is scheduled to operate for a minimum of four years with the potential for national expansion. The total supply requirement for the ten approved producers participating in the Dutch Program is specified by the Netherlands government to be approximately a minimum of 65,000 kilograms of dried flower annually. A brief description of the Dutch Program can be found at Controlled Cannabis Supply Chain Experiment | Government.nl.
About Village Farms International
Village Farms leverages decades of experience as a large-scale, Controlled Environment Agriculture-based, vertically integrated supplier for high-value, high-growth plant-based Consumer Packaged Goods opportunities, with a strong foundation as a leading fresh produce supplier to grocery and large-format retailers throughout the US and Canada, and new high-growth opportunities in the cannabis and CBD categories in North America, the Netherlands and selected markets internationally.
In Canada, the Company’s wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Pure Sunfarms, is one of the single largest cannabis operations in the world, the lowest-cost greenhouse producer and one of Canada’s best-selling brands. The Company also owns 80% of Québec-based, Rose LifeScience, a leading third-party cannabis products commercialization expert in the Province of Québec.
In the US, wholly-owned Balanced Health Botanicals is one of the leading CBD brands and e-commerce platforms in the country. Subject to compliance with all applicable US federal and state laws and stock exchange rules, Village Farms plans to enter the US high-THC cannabis market via multiple strategies, leveraging one of the largest greenhouse operations in the country (more than 5.5 million square feet in West Texas), as well as the operational and product expertise gained through Pure Sunfarms’ cannabis success in Canada.
Internationally, Village Farms is targeting selected, nascent, legal cannabis and CBD opportunities with significant medium- and long-term potential, with an initial focus on the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.
