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TORONTO — The CEO of one of Canada’s largest licensed cannabis producers says his company is facing “short-term supply chain issues” and will not be able to meet the full demand requested by the provinces by Oct. 17, the day that cannabis becomes legal for recreational use in Canada.

“I’ve been communicating this (to the provincial regulators) for several months now leading up to Oct. 17. I’ve said all along that if you want X kilos from Aphria, I cannot make that promise until the spring of 2019, so here’s what we can deliver,” Aphria chief executive Vic Neufeld told the Financial Post.

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Aphria has supply agreements with all 10 provinces and Yukon. In a Sept. 20 press release, the Leamington Ont.-based producer said that it had “begun shipping initial product orders” to ensure that an “extensive range of products will be available to consumers on Oct. 17.”

Photo by Dax Melmer for National Post

But Neufeld’s comments indicate that at least for the next few months ­- in part due to “start-up-type obstacles” that Neufeld says are being encountered across the industry – Aphria will struggle to meet the total amount of product requested by the provinces. “All our products have been allocated between medical and provincial ‘rec’, but even there, we will not be able to supply in the next three months, everything that they want.”