Clever Leaves and Paradise Seeds to Develop and Register Genetic Assets in Colombia
TOCANCIPÁ, Colombia, Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Clever Leaves Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVR, CLVRW) (“Clever Leaves” or the “Company”), a global medicinal cannabis company, announced today that through its partnership with award-winning Dutch seed bank, Paradise Seeds (“Paradise”), to develop and register high performance cannabis cultivars in Colombia, Clever Leaves will have exclusive license to cultivate some of these genetics, while Paradise will make other cultivars available to third parties for cultivation across Colombia and Latin America. The two companies have already begun rigorous selection, phenotyping, and agronomic trials of several Paradise varieties at Clever Leaves’ facility in order to register market-leading cultivars for production and commercialization.
Colombian regulations require official agronomic registration of all cannabis varieties cultivated in the country, to ensure traceability and transparency in international trade of cannabis flowers and derived products. This partnership marks the first agronomic registrations of Paradise genetics in Colombia, enabling the first licensed cultivation and production of Paradise strains for export to global medicinal cannabis markets. The collaboration is expected to positively impact cannabis patients worldwide, combining Paradise’s experience in breeding and selection of high-quality cannabis strains with Clever Leaves’ expertise in cultivation and production of medicinal cannabis at its facility under Good Manufacturing Practices, which are compliant with standards in the European Union, Australia, Brazil, and Colombia.
“Our partnership with Paradise, a company renowned for strains that have won multiple awards—including the High Times Cup, Highlife Cup, and Plant of the Year—represents an immense opportunity to expand Clever Leaves’ global footprint through the registration of Paradise’s genetics. By combining Paradise’s renowned strains with the knowledge and capabilities Clever Leaves has built in Colombia, we can strengthen our portfolio and export new strains to countries where medical cannabis is allowed,” said Andrés Fajardo, CEO of Clever Leaves.
Luc Krol, Founder and CEO of Paradise Seeds, said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Clever Leaves to develop and register our genetic assets in Colombia. We see huge potential for medical cannabis production in Colombia due to the country’s excellent climate, low costs, skilled workforce, and supportive regulations. This partnership with one of the leading international licensed producers operating in the country further advances our strategy of building lasting relationships with high-quality companies in key markets to make Paradise varieties available to more patients around the world.”
About Clever Leaves Holdings Inc.
Clever Leaves is a global medicinal cannabis company. Its operations in Colombia produce cannabinoid active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and finished products in flower and extract form to a growing base of B2B customers around the globe. Clever Leaves aims to disrupt the traditional cannabis production industry by leveraging environmentally sustainable, ESG-friendly, industrial-scale and low-cost production methods, with the world’s most stringent pharmaceutical quality certifications. For more information, please visit https://cleverleaves.com/en/home/
About Paradise Seeds
Paradise Seeds, established in Amsterdam in 1994, is one of the oldest cannabis seed banks in the world. For three decades, the company has remained at the forefront of innovations in cannabis breeding, winning multiple awards for its high-performance sativa, indica and hybrid strains. Since 2013, Paradise has supplied its genetics under commercial license agreements to medical cannabis companies for large scale cultivation. Medicines produced from its genetics are currently available to patients in Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Australia.
Clever Leaves Press Contacts:
Julian Wilches
Chief Regulatory Officer
+1-305-927-6642
Julian.wilches@cleverleaves.com
Clever Leaves Commercial Enquiries:
Camilo Bohorquez
Chief Commercial Officer
Camilo.bohorquez @cleverleaves.com
Paradise Seeds Commercial Enquiries:
Damian Nixon
Business Development
damian@paradise-phytogenetics.com
Investor Contacts:
Cody Slach or Jackie Keshner
Gateway Group, Inc.
+1-949-574-3860
CLVR@gateway-grp.com
