Puro cannabis farm in Kēkerengū, between Blenheim and Kaikōura. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Medical cannabis producer Puro has partnered with Te Rūnanga o Kaikōura to help the business grow and create employment opportunities for Māori.
Puro has been growing medicinal cannabis since 2018 and has two facilities, one in the Waihopai Valley and another on the Kaikōura Coast.
It received $13 million in funding from the government in 2022, to be delivered over five years.
The Kaikōura rūnanga's investment through an equity share is aimed at backing increased production and look at using iwi land for crops.
Puro chief executive Sank Macfarlane said it is a natural partnership that supports the local community.
"There is a shared vision between both parties around education and training. We've put together, as part of our MPI funding that we received, a cadetship which will hopefully lead to further cadets coming through the system and eventually become a contract growing model for medical cannabis in the area.
"Over the last five years we've build up a huge amount of infrastructure and IP and this opportunity allows us to utilise our existing infrastructure that we have and maybe in a year or two start out with some small satellite type farms that can bring the raw product to our existing infrastructure."
Macfarlane said the details of the shareholding agreement are commercially sensitive.
He said the business has made significant progress exporting product to Australia following a recent law change, which is good sign for future growth.
In July the law was amended so that local medicinal cannabis growers only have to meet the standards of importing nations, rather than New Zealand's standards.
That meant products made containing cannabis-based ingredients, which can't be sold in New Zealand, can be exported.
Macfarlane said before the change business hadn't been easy because the local market is so small, but he says interest is growing.
"Probably an education piece is probably the next hurdle for the local industry anyway and I think as people become more comfortable with using medicinal cannabis and it becomes less stigmatised, we will see further uptake in New Zealand. But the bigger and faster opportunities for us are the Australian market and we're very lucky to have them so close to us."
He said the Australian medicinal cannabis market is the fastest growing in the world, projected to reach $1.15 billion by 2033.
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