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Is The Hydroponics Company going to… China?
Health & Biotech
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The Hydroponics Company has an eye on China after appointing a director set to connect them with a Yunnan industrial hemp company.
Steven Xu joined the board on Friday.
The Hydroponics Company (ASX:THC) touted his experience working in corporate finance in Australia and China, as well as connections in medical marijuana hotbeds North America and Israel, as well as China.
Mr Xu told Stockhead that although medical marijuana is illegal in China, the provinces Yunnan and Heilongjiang allow industrial hemp production. Cannabidiol (CBD) extracts are also produced there.
He says he’ll be connecting The Hydroponics Company to a company in Yunnan which produces CBD products and exports to North America.
He hadn’t heard of any companies exporting cannabis-based products into China yet.
“At the moment in China the Chinese government is still very cautious in the medical cannabis area” he said.
“It’s still under a [illegal] drug definition but industrial hemp and the relevant extraction of pure CBD products that can be produced in those provinces.”
Mr Xu is a director of two companies that together own 6.4 per cent of the medical marijuana business, Une-Innovation Consulting Australia and MY INP Venture Capital Fund.
CEO David Radford says they don’t have a defined strategy for China, but it is a country they would look at in the future.
“Our priority is Canada and Australia. Steven obviously has a lot of contacts in China and these are further options for us to explore as we move forward. But as of today it hasn’t featured in our discussions,” he told Stockhead.
The clinic business
The Hydroponics Company has also done a deal to bring Canadian-style cannabis dispensaries to Australia.
Mr Radford says clinics in Canada were key to getting the medical cannabis sector moving in that country, and National Access Canada now services over 10,000 patients.
“We believe there is a real and significant opportunity for a company that offers both training and support to both physicians and patients,” he said.
The planned clinics, which they hope to have a concept store up and running by the end of June, will initially be in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
They will employ trained nurses who will take patients through the process of choosing a product, accessing it, and then monitor their health as they take the course of drugs.
The company was up 1.7 per cent in morning trade to 91.5c.
