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Creso Pharma subsidiary Mernova granted craft designation for Ritual Green cannabis products

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Creso Pharma ASX CPH Mernova Craft Designation Ontario Cannabis Store Canada

Mernova managing director Jack Yu said securing craft designation for its Ritual Green cannabis products highlights the quality and sets the products apart from the competition.

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Creso Pharma’s (ASX: CPH) Canadian subsidiary Mernova Medicinal Inc has been awarded craft designation by the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) for its Ritual Green cannabis products.

Ritual Green is a small batch producer based in Nova Scotia with approximately 30 employees who tend to each plant and bud to deliver a premium quality that the brand has become known for among cannabis enthusiasts.

The products are grown indoors in a purpose-built facility utilising quality-focused cultivation, hang drying, hand trimming and hand packaging practices.

Currently, Ritual Green’s HPG13, Lemon Haze and Clementine Punch strains are sold in over 600 outlets across Ontario and available direct to the public through the OCS online store.

Broader visibility

Mernova managing director Jack Yu said the achievement highlights the superior quality of the company’s products and will provide it with broader visibility in a competitive market.

“Our focus has always been on quality over all else and [this designation] is a validation of the hard work and effort put in by our operations team, and the resulting artisanal quality of our products,” he said.

“We are confident this new category will help differentiate us from the competition, and enhance our brand through increased exposure and awareness, which should result in much broader visibility within the market.”

Mr Yu said Mernova would continue to work with dispensaries and distributors on a province-by-province basis, in a push to maximise growing sales.

Legal recreational cannabis

The OCS is a government agency owned by the Province of Ontario, reporting to the Ministry of Finance, and is the region’s only retailer and wholesaler of legal recreational cannabis.

It works closely with a diverse group of licenced producers authorised by Health Canada to deliver legal, clearly-labelled cannabis products to customers.

The craft designation was launched this month for dried flowers and pre-roll products to help raise the profile of cannabis offerings from small producers.

It aims to more clearly define what “craft” cannabis is and requires that eligible products be hand trimmed, hang dried, hand packaged and grown in a facility which churns out less than 10,000 kilograms of cannabis per year.

The designation does not incur a fee and producers are required to only identify themselves as a craft candidate when submitting to OCS product calls.

The OCS said the initiative could provide a promotional boost to smaller Canadian cannabis producers amid a sea of competition in the critical Ontario market, helping them “attract business from demanding consumers with high expectations”.