“We had always been interested in looking at pharmaceutical crops but never quite found the right partner. We recently did in GW.

“Our glasshouse is very well suited for growing that particular variety of the cannabis plant family and it’s fair to say that the return will be better than on tomatoes. We’re confident of decent yields.”

GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK biotech, has developed an experimental treatment called Epidiolex for severe forms of childhood epilepsy. It is derived from compounds in the cannabis plant and has achieved stellar results in final-stage trials.

The glasshouse will provide enough raw crop a year to treat 40,000 children globally, making British Sugar a major supplier to GW.

“GW wanted a very professional grower and we have that expertise. This is a crop that goes into medicines and needs to be grown consistently and reliably,” said Mr Kenward.