Aurora Cannabis closes 200-acre farm in British Columbia

Aurora Cannabis closes 200-acre farm in British Columbia

The cannabis company continues to reorganize as it matures

Aurora Cannabis has just announced the closure of a 200-acre cannabis farm in British Columbia. The company has opted to formally surrender its cultivation license for an outdoor farm in the Canadian province.

The revocation reported two days ago on Health Canada’s official list of federally licensed cannabis producers is one of the latest of several license revocations by the Alberta-based firm. Aurora Valley had been listed as the company’s fifth site, licensed in mid-2019.

The news comes some time after Aurora unveiled the purchase of Thrive Cannabis, an outdoor and indoor cannabis producer in Ontario. Aurora Valley is a huge farm located in Westwold, BC, about an hour and a half northwest of Kelowna.

During an interview, a company spokesperson made it clear that the Aurora Valley site was no longer needed because the Thrive Cannabis location has replaced it. “We recently made the decision to scale back operations at our outdoor cultivation site, Aurora Valley, located in Westwold, British Columbia. Valley employees were informed of this decision prior to spring planting, and we supported those affected, including offering transition opportunities wherever possible.”

The company said that through the recent acquisition of Thrive Cannabis, it has gained outdoor and indoor cultivation facilities. Therefore there was no longer a need to continue to operate commercially at the Valley site. Thrive’s outdoor cultivation has been marketing products for a long period, and the company plans to benefit from that experience.

At the time, Valley was used primarily for research purposes on new outdoor growing techniques and cultivars. At the end of 2019, the first harvest was reported at the site, which was approximately 55,000 plants divided into six different cultivars. Aurora expects to have even better production when it begins full operations at the Thrive location.