Village Farms International, Inc. (“Village Farms” or the “Company”) (TSX:VFF; Nasdaq:VFF) today announced that its majority-owned joint venture for large-scale, low-cost, high-quality cannabis production, Pure Sunfarms, has entered into a supply agreement with the Alberta Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis Commission (“AGLC”) to supply recreational adult-use cannabis products to Alberta’s licensed private retailers, including Alberta’s only legal online source for recreational cannabis, AlbertaCannabis.org. The AGLC is the wholesaler to private retailers and the only authorized online retailer in Alberta.  Pure Sunfarms expects to begin shipping its branded packaged dried flower, inclusive of pre-rolls, which are anticipated to enter Pure Sunfarms’ product lineup, to the AGLC in the coming weeks and months.

Alberta represents approximately 12% of Canada’s population, however with a network of more than 330 retail stores (by far the largest retail store network of any Canadian province) represented 21% of total retail trade cannabis sales in Canada for the nine-month period from January to September 2019¹.  As a result, Alberta has by far the highest per capita sales of legal recreational cannabis amongst the four largest Canadian provinces during that same period¹.  Alberta saw month over month sales growth for September 2019 of 4%¹.

“Today’s supply agreement with Alberta presents a strong opportunity for Pure Sunfarms to expand our reach across Canada,” said Mandesh Dosanjh, President and CEO, Pure Sunfarms. “The province has led the way since legalization, and we believe that Albertans will welcome our product with the same enthusiasm we’ve seen to date in Ontario and B.C. Our high-quality cannabis – hand selected for flavour, potency and consistency – at an affordable price has been in high demand since our branded retail launch in September.”

“Alberta has done an outstanding job of rapidly establishing a large retail cannabis store network – more than 330 locations strong – and this new Supply Agreement for Alberta allows Pure Sunfarms, already a leading brand in Ontario and BC, to expand into another of the top three Canadian cannabis markets,” said Michael DeGiglio, CEO, Village Farms International.  “We are confident that the Pure Sunfarms value proposition – high quality, safe products that consumers want, at an attractive price – which has resonated so well out of the gate in Ontario and BC, will be similarly embraced by the Alberta market.  We look forward to watching the performance of the Pure Sunfarms brand in Alberta, as well as in BC, and especially in Ontario, where Pure Sunfarms is already the top-selling dried flower brand, as that province moves in the near term to aggressively expand its retail store network, which should propel sales growth there.”

Pure Sunfarms’ supply agreement with Alberta is its third provincial supply agreement.  Combined with its previously announced supply agreements for Ontario and British Columbia, Pure Sunfarms now has access to approximately 64% of the Canadian population.

Pure Sunfarms also continues to advance discussions with other provincial distributors for potential supply agreements.

Pure Sunfarms Brand and Product Performance

As previously reported, Pure Sunfarms was the top performing brand of dried flower by both kilograms sold and dollar sales with the Ontario Cannabis Store (“OCS”) in October 2019, achieving 16% market share (by kilograms sold).  Pure Sunfarms’ dried flower products outsold the second ranked dried flower brand’s products two to one (by kilograms sold).  In addition, Pure Sunfarms’ Afghan Kush was the top selling dried flower product with the OCS in October and three of the seven top selling dried flower products with the OCS in October were Pure Sunfarms products.  In B.C., Pure Sunfarms sold out its first order to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch (“BCLDB”) (which has since re-ordered multiple times) in under three weeks to rank among the top ten brands by sales for all product categories in October.

SOURCE Village Farms International, Inc.