Canopy Growth Exits Springfield, N.Y., Hemp Operations

Canopy Growth Corp. took a big step back from several international operations last week, cutting ties with its assets in South Africa, Lesotho, Colombia and the U.S.

Among the company’s attempts to reduce its workforce and its cash-burn rate was the closure of Waterpoint Hemp Farm in Springfield, N.Y. more than 1,000 acres of former dairy farmland. Canopy bought the property in early 2019. “Canopy Growth purchased Waterpoint not just because it had the good land for hemp, but it also had the housing, electrical infrastructure, buildings, diesel tanks,” Branson Skinner, Canopy Growth’s farm manager for New York State, said at the time.

As of last week, however, Canopy had closed the farm and turned its attention elsewhere in the hemp market.

“We have made the difficult but necessary decision to close our Waterpoint Hemp Farm based in Springfield, New York,” according to a statement from the company. “Like many other growers in the state, Waterpoint Hemp Farm produced an abundance of hemp in 2019, which does not commensurate with current market demand or the regulatory delays surround hemp extracts.”

The surplus biomass will be used in Canopy’s CBD isolate products manufactured under the brand First & Free, which includes soft gels, tinctures and creams, a company spokesperson told Hemp Grower. Canopy continues to build out its hemp production facility on the site of a former vacuum cleaner production plant in Kirkwood, N.Y.

The company also works with contract farmers in the U.S. to produce hemp for extraction purposes.

“The industry overall overestimated the market demand. I think that is certainly what we’re trying to understand moving forward, as well as the regulations around this,” a Canopy spokesperson told Hemp Grower. “Once regulations get finalized, then we’ll be able to forecast market demand better.”