Biortica Agrimed: Gippsland medicinal cannabis farm emerges as sector heavyweight
A small company with modest ambition has become a medicinal cannabis powerhouse, thanks to its focus on horticulture.
As the ink dried on the nation’s first commercial licence to grow medicinal cannabis, granted back in March 2017, the rush was already on.
Companies, including first licence holder Cann Group plus a scrum of global players and local start-ups, raced into what was expected to be a hugely lucrative market in Australia.
Sparkling hi-tech glasshouses and manufacturing plants popped up, from the banks of the Murray River to Queensland’s Darling Downs, as fledgling cannabis ventures fought to control the plant-based pharmaceutical supply chain, backed by deep-pocketed investors.
Six years on from that frantic start, during which the Office for Drug Control issued more than 100 cultivation licences, many shiny glasshouses now stand empty. Overly ambitious founders aiming for vertical integration from the outset failed to realise just how tricky it is to actually grow the flowering plant.
One of the companies that has come out a winner is Biortica Agrimed. Chief executive Tom Varga says of those 100 initial licence holders, just 13 have permits to grow, nine are actually growing and six at scale – with Biortica leading the pack. In country Victoria southeast of Melbourne, the company’s 4000sq m glasshouse is green from wall to wall. Varga and co-founder Matthew Turner will ramp up production in a new 5800sq m hothouse in Gippsland and 10,000sq m under glass in NSW bought from CannaPacific, in the next 12 months.
When the pair founded Biortica back in 2019, their aim was to establish a “niche” operation that could ensure high quality domestically grown product would be available to Australian patients. “It actually started with my father, who had one of his very close friends diagnosed with MND,” Turner says. “CBD (an active ingredient in cannabis) was used to control the seizures that he was suffering and my father saw the relief it brought him. His once typical Boomer attitude towards the plant as being the great demotivator was transformed into an advocate of the medicine.”
In the past four years, Biortica has evolved into one of the most productive cannabis cultivation enterprises in Australia, harvesting 5000kg a year, with their new developments about to boost capacity to 25,000kg.
“Our next closest growing competitor is generating about 3500kg (a year),” Varga says. Cann Group last year produced 3100kg.
Biortica has also recently acquired Apollo Green, an Ottawa-based cannabis genetics operation that supplies to growers in Canada, Portugal, Spain, Israel and now Australia.
Mastering breeding, propagation and the post-harvest process has been a huge challenge for many, and that’s how Biortica sets itself apart. It leaves the brand building, value-adding, distribution and retailing to others, while focusing exclusively on the plant.
“Some of these guys who have fallen over, where they’ve made their mistake is firstly everyone thinks cannabis is a weed. It’s not a weed. It’s very difficult to grow,” Varga says. “Secondly, everyone believes that just because you grow it, (patients) will move from the illicit market to the legal market. If your quality is not there, no they won’t.
“Understanding the theory of growing at scale is equally applicable to cannabis or capsicums or cucumbers, so you need someone who understands that.”
They have head of horticulture Ben Ellerton, who spent 30 years growing food crops and ornamentals before high school mate Turner convinced him to bring his skills to Biortica.
“There is definitely a real want and need for Australian-grown product,” says Ellerton, who leads a team of 40 staff in the Gippsland greenhouse. “There is a lot more precision required (compared to food crops).”
Producing medical-grade plant products requires stringent quality control at every step of the growing process. But at a value much higher than basil’s $13/kg, and projections that demand in Australia for prescribed medicinal cannabis will hit 135,000kg a year by 2025, there’s huge potential for the sector to boost regional economies while transforming the lives of people living with chronic pain and cancers.
Breast cancer survivor Sandra Johnston, 73, uses medicinal cannabis as a preventive measure. Many members of the Gold Coast Women’s Cancer Support Group, which she founded, use it for pain relief and in the hope it will fight their tumours’ spread.
The American Cancer Society says scientists have recently reported that cannabinoids such as THC and CBD slow growth of certain types of cancer cells in lab dishes. There is much more research to do, but Johnston doesn’t have time to waste.
“I was 67 when I was diagnosed,” she says.
“I haven’t had any recurrence or anything since, but last year my cancer markers started going up.”
OAM recipient Johnston connected with a medical doctor who was using cannabis as a safeguard against recurrence, and followed her lead.
She is adamant that policy relating to cannabis’s use in the health system needs to keep up with the pace of innovation in the cultivation space.
Turner and Varga say shortsighted policy and misguided regulation is the biggest threat to the sector.
“If governments look to act as middlemen like the OCS (crown-run Ontario Cannabis Store) in Canada or put layers upon layers of tax like in many US markets, the industry cannot operate,” Varga says. “We will see an illicit market that remains cheaper and just as accessible.”
Turner adds: “The globe is littered with failed cannabis start-ups and a lot of that is a result of the legislation that many jurisdictions have just not gotten right.
“Australia is at a really important crossroads right now and we need to be aware of the power the medicine has.
“Our role in that is to ensure we get the production right.”
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