- GrowLife opens outlet in Calgary to bring cloning cubes to Canadian market
- Cannabis clone demand seen surging in Canada
- EZ Clone cubes grow 500 clones at a time
A U.S. cultivation product company that sells cloning technology has opened up shop in Calgary, where Canada’s federal cannabis regulations offer sales opportunities unavailable south of the border at a time that Canadian producers race to meet demand in the new recreational weed market.
“What we’re seeing is the demand for clones in Canada is significantly higher than in the U.S., particularly cannabis,” said Marco Hegyi, chief executive of GrowLife, which is based in Kirkland, Washington.
“Historically we would see demand in the thousands of clones. Now we’re seeing demand in the millions for clones in Canada.”
GrowLife Inc. acquired a majority share in EZ-CLONE Enterprises Inc. in October, 2018, and sells its equipment that is designed to grow cannabis and hemp clones.
“Historically clones have been grown in small containers that are maybe 20 to 30 clones at a time,” said Mr. Hegyi.
“We have a system called EZ Clone Pro and it grows 500 clones at a time. Imagine you’re in the cloning business and you’re trying to grow 10s or 100s at a time, and you just can’t meet the demand.”
Clone prices in Canada are roughly 10 times higher than in the United States and, therefore, increase demand for cloning equipment, he said.
“You offer nationwide transfer of plants where you cannot in the U.S. (and) the Canadian population is one tenth that of the U.S., but you allow export (across provincial boundaries). The U.S. is basically a state by state market.”
The vertically shelved cloning boxes are designed to go inside production facilities and reduce the cost of production from cloning through harvest to 50 U.S. cents a gram. This does not include the costs of drying, packaging and selling, he said.
“This is an enabling technology, that if it’s done right it will enable a greater yield of a plant which drives down the cost,” Mr. Hegyi said.