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4 non-cannabis stocks advancing the cannabis industry

These companies are advancing the cannabis industry. Interestingly enough, they aren’t the cannabis stocks many were jumping to a couple of years ago.

“Where do I invest my money?” You’ve likely asked someone this question; or hopefully, you’ve perplexed it yourself, at one time or another, in your conquest through adulthood.

It’s not such a simple question even to the most competent of adults. It’s best simplified in order to understand what you really see value in. Or shall I say, what you can prospect to grow in value after you’ve acquired it.

‘It’ being a stock, or a share of a company; not Pennywise the clown, who most of us can say attributed to some form of childhood trauma. Jokes aside, trading in stocks takes wisdom with your pennies. The simplest rule of thumb is ‘buy low, sell high.’ And look for investment vehicles that make sense to you, and for you.

Now before we dive deeper into the topic; full disclosure, I’m no investment advisor, and this is not investment advice.

If you are thinking about investing in stock, you must consider the risk that is involved. I suggest seeking out professional advice before tossing your money around. But hey it’s your money, and you’re a grown-up, who am I to tell you what to do?

EnWave Corp (ENW.V)

EnWave designs, constructs, licences, and sells vacuum drying machines for companies in the food, cannabis, and biomaterial dehydration industries.

The company is disrupting these industries with its innovative methods in radiant energy vacuum dehydration, a specialty industrial machinery technology. It holds a patent for this cutting-edge drying tech which it designs, manufactures, and sells, all in-house.

EnWave signs licensing agreements with a diverse set of companies it’s partnered with. Meaning that it’s able to generate royalties for the products these companies are producing with its equipment.

The Vancouver-based company currently trades on the TSX, although it is expanding globally, with international partnerships. Its most recently announced partnership outside of North America is with the largest dairy producer in Turkey, ‘Sütaş.’ 

EnWave will install a 10kW machine at one of the Sütaş sites in Turkey. The Turkish industry leaders will monitor the equipment’s performance in drying premium dairy snacks and ingredients. A strategic partnership, but one that comes as no surprise.

EnWave produces its own dairy products in the form of ‘Moon Cheese’. The daughter company is producing an all-natural dairy snack with its patented drying tech. You can purchase its Moon Cheese products at your local Starbucks, Wholefoods, and Costco.

Inside of North America, it has partnered with a cannabis industry leader in Illinois, but hasn’t mentioned the name of the licensee. A recent news release on the company site announced that it has signed a purchase agreement for two units. One 120kW machine for large-scale production output, and one 10kW machine for small commercial runs and process refinement.

EnWave has emerged as a company advancing the method for drying and curing in the cannabis industry. To speak on the capabilities of the machinery, one 120kW unit can process up to 105kg of wet cannabis biomass per hour.

This yields approximately 23 kg of dried ganja on the hour. The machines pump out the product at scale. What bud enthusiasts may find taster, is the machine’s ability to retain greater than 10% of the terpenes compared to rack-dried cannabis. EnWave’s technology is able to do so by removing moisture from plant material at a controllable low temperature.

A temperature below the level of decarboxylation. With this method, the company is ensuring the clients, and the consumers are granted a superior product whether it’s the cheese you’re smoking or eating. Maybe it’s both? Perhaps simultaneously? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem

Cannasupplies – Vanrx Pharmasystems Inc. (DHR)

Cannasupplies are the market leader for ancillary packaging in the legalized Canadian Cannabis industry. Its compliant packaging solutions are at the forefront of the industry and can be found in retail stores across the nation.

The Canadian government laid out mandatory packaging requirements for all producers. Whether you are a fan or foe of said requirements, Cannasupplies is providing the packaging products for many of the top licensed producers in Canada.

They have three types of products that they currently offer. Child resistant packaging, secondary packaging (or labelling), and master shipping cases. These products are a current necessity among the producer wanting to sell licensed products to the Canadian consumer.

And while there’s no shortage of brands wanting to emerge as a household name, Cannasupplies is a company playing a key role in advancing brand establishment amongst the cannabis industry.

The suppliers are a division of ‘The Company’ Vanrx Pharmasystems Inc. Vanrx is a maker of robotic aseptic filling machines for the filling of vials, syringes, and cartridges. Their techniques reduce the risks and increase the speed in which they output products.

Vanrx was recently acquired by the Cytiva brand, a global life sciences leader dedicated to advancing and accelerating therapeutics. Both Cannasupplies and Vanrx are not publicly traded companies. Although their parent company, the larger conglomerate Danaher trades on the NYSE under the symbol DHR.

The parent originated from a real estate trust, before switching its name, and focus on manufacturing. Danaher started to take shape in the mid 80’s after exposure to the Japanese business philosophy, kaizen, meaning continuous improvement.

They claim to be one of the first companies in North America to adopt kaizen. Which has led to the further development of their business system. They’ve integrated this school of thought into the diversified business they’ve acquired. The company’s system is centred around five core values. “The best team wins”, “customers talk, we listen”, “kaizen is our way of life”, “innovation designs our future”, and “we compete for shareholders”. 

Village Farms International, Inc. (VFF)

Photo by Mark Stebnicki

Village Farms International has established itself as one of the largest and longest operating greenhouse growers in North America. It is the only publicly traded greenhouse growing company in Canada.

It trades both on TSE and NASDAQ under VFF. The company produces and distributes fresh premium produce to grocers in both Canada and the US. It does so 365 days a year, via its Controlled Environment Agriculture in British Columbia, Texas—as well as with partnered greenhouses in BC, Ontario, and Mexico.

It’s taken its techniques for growing the highest quality produce, and have applied it to its wholly-owned cannabis producer, Pure Sunfarms. It houses one of the single largest cannabis operations in the world.

Village also has interests in vertically integrating itself in the hemp-derived CBD market in the US. It has formed a strategic joint-venture with American company, Village Field Hemps USA, with a plan to cultivate hemp for CBD extraction, and intentions of pursuing controlled environment hemp production.

It will do so at its 5.7 million square feet Texas facility once US regulatory framework for CBD becomes clearer. Village Farms is committed to growing the best possible premium produce for its customers. And the same can be said for the way it’s supplying its cannabis.

It makes sense that a company committed to producing the highest quality of produce would be leading the way in cannabis production techniques. After all, they’re all just plants. This has helped to make its cannabis subsidiary a trusted brand among consumers nationwide. And a market leader in companies advancing the standard for sunlight growing in the produce and cannabis industry.

Aside from its focus on production, it’s doing more to become an eco-focused company through sustainable clean energy. It claims to be using 70% of the landfill gas generated from decomposing garbage in the city of Vancouver’s main landfill, to pipe into their clean energy station.

Once it arrives at the VF Clean energy power station, its engines convert the gas into heat and electricity. The energy is then sent to BC Hydro, to use for the heating of its water tanks. When needed, the warm water is used throughout the greenhouse to keep the plants at a suitable temperature.

Plants also need creature comforts in order to live their best life. What better way to provide it than with clean energy, fewer pesticides, less water, and more produce with less land required. All with Village’s greenhouse growing techniques.

PotCoin

Photo by Roger Brown

Before we get too far ahead, I have to mention that this is not a stock that is traded on your typical stock exchanges. Nor is it traded over the counter. Like all crypto, it is traded over the internet. And although there isn’t anything illegal about it, it’s an unregulated investment vehicle still in the early stages. It’s difficult to gauge where its value may go, or whether or not PotCoin can add value to businesses in the marijuana industry.

There’s much excitement about cryptocurrency. It’s become an undeniably evident way for successfully raising capital for the coin in question. And love it or hate it, that in itself holds weight in today’s culture.

Its emergence in the last decade, though many active investors are skeptical (and for good reason), is nonetheless, truly fascinating. Many coins have yet to implement real-world functions aside from the value of the coin itself once you convert the common currency to crypto. I’d like to see things take off, but I speculate that we are still a little ways from seeing Bitcoin, Ether, and other blockchain values fully integrated into our everyday economy. With today’s social climate, you never know what could happen.

Allow me to introduce you to PotCoin, a blockchain payment technology specialized for the cannabis industry. The idea is to create an ecosystem of solutions to empower the cannabis industry by creating a centralized currency, specifically for the cannabis industry.

PotCoin’s website isn’t displaying any of its partnerships at the moment so it’s hard to say how many cannabis companies are willing to adopt this new system—or how it may actually function with today’s business.

But here’s what we do know. It’s open to everyone; lets you be your own bank; offers a peer-to-peer network and decentralization; it claims to offer military-grade security; and it’s a divisible and flexible amount up to eight decimal places, so you don’t need to own a whole PotCoin to spend a whole pot coin.

It ticks a lot of boxes, but we won’t know for sure whether or not it could be a real thing until we can walk into a licensed store and purchase pot with a PotCoin. Again, plenty of unknowns, but if it does amass to that, then PotCoin could potentially be one of the greatest highdeas ever.

Interested in reading more about stocks? Check out our article on ‘5 of the Most Profitable Pot Stocks to Buy for 2021′

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