Savills is leading an initiative to help businesses and investors take advantage of the growing market for medical cannabis.
The agency has teamed up with Hanway Associates, a London-based consultancy specialising in the cannabis market, and CambridgeHOK, a horticultural engineering company. The trio are launching Crop17, a venture they claim will aid in the planning, building and operating of medical cannabis facilities.
Savills, which will identify potential sites for investment for medical cannabis ventures, will then use Crop17 to provide farmers and investors with geographical information about sites, as well as regulatory and operational consultancy.
“For the forward-thinking and innovative farmer and grower, adapting into new markets is a key priority,” said Alex Bragg, a director in Savills’ food and farming business. “This turnkey solution is the type of innovation we expect to see more of within UK agriculture.”
According to Savills, the potential margins from growing medical cannabis are more lucrative per gram than strawberries. The agency cited a forecast from BDS Analytics, a cannabis research firm, that the global legal cannabis industry will grow to around £35bn by 2024, from £11.5bn last year.
If the UK follows the trend seen in Australia when restrictions around medical cannabis were relaxed, Savills’ team added, the number of cannabis prescriptions issued in the UK could leap from a few hundred in 2019 to more than 185,000 in the next three years.
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