In yet another instance of Canadian companies setting their sights south towards the American Green Rush, cannabis company Tilray announced Feb. 20 that it agreed to acquire U.S.-based hemp food manufacturer Manitoba Harvest for $419 million.<\/p>\n
This buy represents an apparent effort by Tilray to dip into the freshly legal American CBD<\/a> marketplace, especially given Manitoba Harvest\u2019s wide stateside distribution network \u2014 their hemp products, including granola, hemp milk and hemp hearts, are currently sold in grocery mega-chains like Whole Foods, Costco and Walmart.<\/p>\n \u201cTilray\u2019s acquisition of Manitoba Harvest is a milestone for the cannabis industry. It builds on the strategic partnerships we have formed with consumer brand industry leaders and demonstrates our track record of disrupting the global pharmaceutical, alcohol, CPG and functional food and beverage categories,\u201d said Brendan Kennedy, Tilray president and CEO, in a press release<\/a> regarding the sale. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to work with Manitoba Harvest to develop and distribute a diverse portfolio of branded hemp-derived CBD food and wellness products in the U.S. and Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n The same press release also teased a \u201cline of CBD containing Broad Spectrum Hemp Extracts\u201d set to launch this summer.<\/p>\n Manitoba Harvest CEO Bill Chiasson, who told Cheddar<\/a> his company\u2019s goal is \u201cto help people transform their lives through the power of hemp,\u201d shared Kennedy\u2019s enthusiasm about the acquisition in a short interview two days after the buy was announced. \u201cWe really see that by being able to tap into the know-how, the expertise of Tilray, we\u2019re going to be able to accelerate this to support our consumers even more,\u201d Chiasson said, citing Tilray\u2019s research and development and \u201ctechnical resources\u201d as some of the company\u2019s major assets.<\/p>\n This acquisition is the latest in a line of buyouts<\/a> of American cannabis businesses by Canadian companies, coming on the heels of a pair of deals between Bay Area dispensaries Harborside and Apothecarium to two Canadian companies, Lineage Grow Co. and TerrAscend.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise to see big money players in the cannabis industry turning their eyes and (opening their wallets) towards THC\u2019s less trippy cousin. CBD is purported to have a slew of health benefits, from decreasing anxiety to alleviating seizures, and its former gray-area legal status helped make it the<\/em> additive du jour in coffee shops and restaurants across the U.S.<\/p>\n And after the 2018 Farm Bill rendered hemp federally legal<\/a> in late December, the trendy cannabinoid became an even hotter commodity, and acquisitions like this one make it apparent that the global cannabis industry has taken note \u2014 despite some recent regulatory efforts<\/a> from the FDA.<\/p>\n But it appears that the higher-ups at Manitoba Harvest, and by extension Tilray, are mostly unconcerned about how those regulations will impact their future CBD-related endeavors.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent states have their own regulations and we want to be very careful as we navigate through those, that we stay within the boundaries of the regulatory market that we\u2019re in,\u201d Chiasson told Cheddar. \u201cI do think that the regulatory environment is gaining a greater clarity and will continue to do that over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n And based on the fact that members of Congress have already expressed skepticism<\/a> about the FDA\u2019s recent crackdown, it looks likely that Chiasson and other CBD believers are right to be confident, at least when it comes to legality. Whether or not CBD is actually the cure-all some promise might be a different story.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you use hemp products?<\/p>\n The post Tilray Acquires Manitoba Harvest, Dives Into American CBD Market<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In yet another instance of Canadian companies setting their sights south towards the American Green Rush, cannabis company Tilray announced Feb. 20 that it agreed to acquire U.S.-based hemp food manufacturer Manitoba Harvest for $419 million. This buy represents an apparent effort by Tilray to dip into the freshly legalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[635,34,50,136,3995,170,1170,296,7716,1088],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33170,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33169\/revisions\/33170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The \u201cPower of Hemp\u201d<\/h4>\n
Clarity in the Regulatory Environment<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Tilray Acquires Manitoba Harvest, Dives Into American CBD Market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"