PotNetwork's focus on Latin America
Last Thursday, Khiron Life Sciences Corp. (OTCQB:KHRNF) (TSXV:KHRN), a Canadian medical cannabis firm with core operations in Colombia, presented their 2019 Latin American investment goals at the KCSA Cannabis Investor Event hosted by Virtual Investor Conferences, a leading online conference platform. Khiron, the highest valued public firm to attend was joined by 12 other companies including, KushCo Holdings (NASDAQOTH:KSHB), DionyMed Brands Inc. (CSE:DYME), and MTech Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:MTEC).
With exponential growth in the cannabis sector through the U.S. and Canadian markets, Khiron’s goals for 2019 differentiate their portfolio from many other companies looking to make a name for themselves in the cannabis market: investments in Latin America.
President of Khiron, Chris Naprawa, devoted his entire 30-minute presentation to champion the opportunities for medical cannabis use for the 650-million-person Latin American market. With varying levels of legalization across eight Latin American countries, the firm is focusing on three major areas this year, including strengthening partnerships to provide high-quality care to an underserved market, low-cost cultivation and high-quality branding to increase access to patients and doctors and continued dominance of the Latin American market.
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“Cannabis has become a global phenomenon,” said Naprawa as he opened up the conference. “Our goal is to become the dominant cannabis company in Latin America for medical and adult-use.”
Source: Khiron Presentation
The dominant cannabis company in Latin America
On their first goal, Naprawa indicated that their approach is to equalize the medical cannabis market in Latin America with Canada and the United States. Partnering with prominent cannabis licensors, doctors associations and compassionate care groups, Khiron is permeating every aspect of the supply chain.
The relationships are symbiotic, Naprawa insisted, “You can’t get doctors to prescribe medicine that their patient associations don’t endorse and we’ve got the endorsement of several patient and doctor associations.”
Patient needs across Latin America, show that medical marijuana use is largely to manage symptoms of chronic pain, anxiety, and epilepsy, the same as in Canada or the United States. Khiron believes they should have access to the same high-quality medication and are providing cannabis education and greater access to reliable and trustworthy medical cannabis for patients across Latin America.
Already the leader of the Latin American medical cannabis market Khiron is utilizing the opportunity to buy cheap agricultural land in perfect cannabis growing regions within Latin America. They are already licensed for over 2.4-million-square-feet of cultivation across Chile, Columbia, and Uruguay, spreading climate and geopolitical risk across three locations.
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In Chile, Khiron works with Fundacion Daya, or DayaCann, the only marijuana license provider in the country. Meanwhile, down in Colombia, Khiron has set up 1.9 million-square-feet worth of plots in an industrial farming area about which Naprawa drove home, “This is a beautiful region of Colombia… and if you had to pick a place in the world to cultivate cannabis, this one is it.”
Source: Khiron Presentation
A strategic play in Uruguay
Over in Uruguay, the firm recently signed an agreement to purchase 100 percent of Nettagrow, a Vancouver based firm that owns the first license to grow medical cannabis in Uruguay, and purchased half a million square feet of cultivation land.
Geopolitically, Uruguay is strategic. Free trade agreements between Uruguay and Brazil allow Khiron access to a consumer base of another 200 million people. While Cannabis is currently decriminalized in Brazil and Brazil’s legislature has been entertaining new laws to allow medical use of cannabis since late 2018, the country’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has a strong anti-drug platform putting the medical cannabis market in jeopardy.
Whether the Brazilian market will be open for cannabis business ventures any time soon is unclear, bringing us to Khiron’s third major goal in Latin America for 2019: gaining a first mover advantage.
Of the firms at the KCSA Cannabis Investor Event, Khiron was alone in highlighting the importance of the Latin American market. Khiron is focusing on “evangelizing” the medical cannabis space across Latin America, pulling in leading partners while other firms are expanding regionally in the US and Canada, Naprawa went on to say:
“It might not be clear to investors today but this is an enormous, enormous opportunity when you talk about a market that size…, in the US market today people get excited about... Michigan with 10 million people well how about 240 million people in Brazil.”
Today in Latin America, Khiron has about 100,000 patients but hope to have one million patients in five years, and their work is growing ahead of other firms in this space will undoubtedly help them reach that goal.
Khiron rose 8.1 percent on Monday, ending the day at $2.0759 a share.