Valley Agriceuticals held a groundbreaking ceremony for their new medical marijuana production facility in the Town of Wallkill on Thursday afternoon.
The 100,000 square foot facility will be constructed on a 139-acre parcel; 75 percent of the acreage will be conserved by the company.
Valley Agriceuticals is vying for one of five medical marijuana licenses the state will issue. Although they have completed their application as of last week, they have not been awarded a license yet; so, the operation will be constructed on speculation.
Despite that, company President Erik Holling said they are confident because of their experience and planning that they will be awarded a license.
“We know what it takes to have product on the shelves by January of 2016, which is what the state has mandated,” said Holling. “So, we’ve backed into that and said, ‘ok, when do we need to have a facility available, when do we need to have plant in the ground’ and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing because we’re here for the citizens and patients of New York and we want to get that medicine to them. So, the only way to do that is to start breaking ground and to start getting a building up and running so that, literally, we’re ready to go to follow our plan and our timeline.”
Holling would not disclose specifics on the cost of the operation, or Valley Agriceuticals’ investment in it; but, he said they have fully budgeted their costs for the next five years and have the funds to operate for that amount of time.
The company will be offering five brands of medical marijuana to patients and their farming practices are Clean Green Certified. Clean Green Certification is a National Organic Program certification that ensures organic farming practices.
Since certified organic certification is awarded by the feds and marijuana is still federally illegal, they cannot attain that certification but, Clean Green employs the same stipulations and practices as organic for the most part.
All their marijuana will be soil grown in indoor greenhouses on the facility property.
