A large-scale greenhouse operation in East Delta continues to expand its cannabis cultivation.

Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. has announced that its joint venture with Village Farms, called Pure Sunfarms, received from Health Canada yet another amendment to its cultivation licence for its greenhouse, which used to grow vegetables. The additional 138,000 square feet brings Pure Sunfarms’ total licensed cannabis production area to approximately 825,000 square feet. The newly licensed area was expected to be fully planted and in production by this week.

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Pure Sunfarms also applied for another 206,000 square feet of growing area, which is under review by Health Canada. That further amendment would expand the operation’s permitted production area to just over 1.03 million square feet. The remaining approximately 69,000 square feet of the facility is being converted to processing and extraction activities. The Pure Sunfarms Delta greenhouse will be one of the single largest cannabis growing facilities in the world, the company says.

“With deep cannabis and large-scale greenhouse growing expertise, established operational systems, and cannabis strains well-suited to a greenhouse environment, we expect Pure Sunfarms’ leadership in optimized greenhouse cannabis growing to achieve attractive quality, yield, and profitability,” said Dr. Avtar Dhillon, executive chairman and president of Emerald in a news release. “We expect this facility to be in full production in the first half of 2019. With Emerald’s supply agreement for 40 per cent of Pure Sunfarms’ 2019 production along with our Quebec and hemp operations, we are strongly positioned for quarter to quarter sales growth.”

The company says its Delta 3 greenhouse has 16 grow rooms, 13 of which are now licensed, optimized for year-round harvesting at more than 80 harvests annually.