Latest / Best of Business / Tim Aldridge: Puro co-founder on the regulations impacting cannabis distribution in NZ

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Tim Aldridge: Puro co-founder on the regulations impacting cannabis distribution in NZ · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk sed B.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Now you know which movie to see and how to
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  Speaker 2: see it and how it ends? Sorry about that, all right?
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  Speaker 2: Did you know all of the medicinal cannabis you can
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: buy here is important? Yes, all of it comes from overseas,
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  Speaker 2: despite local companies which know already, which are already up
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  Speaker 2: and running and doing it quite well, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Medical marijuana company Puro has just signed a sixteen million
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  Speaker 2: dollar distribution deal in the United Kingdom, but they say
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  Speaker 2: red tape is stopping the company from selling domestically. Tim
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  Speaker 2: Aldridge is the CEO of pre PRUO and is with me. Now, Hi, Tim,
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  Speaker 2: how are you?
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  Speaker 3: I'm good? Thank you? Cya Cura was enjoying that that
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  Speaker 3: we movee debriefly right, so it check that one out.
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  Speaker 2: You will have to go and check it out, hey, Tim,
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  Speaker 2: So this congratulations on signing this distribution deal. By the way,
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  Speaker 2: that's massive, well done. But why on earth can't you
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  Speaker 2: sell it here?
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  Speaker 3: Ah? Look, so the I guess this time last year
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  Speaker 3: the regulations changed so we could export, which was obviously
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  Speaker 3: something we're very grateful for and is an amazing outcome
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  Speaker 3: for us. And this in the last twelve months, we've
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  Speaker 3: been foot to the floor producing our products primarily for
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  Speaker 3: export markets. We do have some local supply here and
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  Speaker 3: it sort of caveat not all cannabis is important to
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  Speaker 3: almost all, so it's very very hard for local companies
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  Speaker 3: like us to bring our products to the market. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: it's just almost it's just commercially challenging. So I mean
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  Speaker 3: the neat part of that is obviously the export opportunities
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  Speaker 3: are enormous demand for our products and the reception we're
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  Speaker 3: received offshore for our products is incredible. But yes, as
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  Speaker 3: you say before, it's it's just almost too difficult to
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  Speaker 3: sort of navigate the regulatory environment here and it's a
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  Speaker 3: lot easier for us to focus on the larger export
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  Speaker 3: markets instead.
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  Speaker 2: So you manufacture it here but export there, but you
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  Speaker 2: only have to meet their standards, that is correct.
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  Speaker 3: So we're a grower, So we operate entirely in the
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  Speaker 3: primary industry, and there are no manufacturers here or packaging
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  Speaker 3: some companies here that can take our product and run
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  Speaker 3: it through. It's not as a GMP process, So it's
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  Speaker 3: those sort of those companies and there are some facilities
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  Speaker 3: in the pipeline hopefully they can come online in the
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  Speaker 3: foreseeable future. But right here, right now, we have to
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  Speaker 3: send their products to Australia to be packaged and then
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  Speaker 3: obviously we could bring them back into the country, but
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  Speaker 3: it's just cumbersome and it's expensive and it's quite time consuming,
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  Speaker 3: and obviously they're already in the markets that we are
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  Speaker 3: really targeting. Anyway, it just makes sense commercial sense for
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  Speaker 3: us to focus on those markets. So we're in Australia
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  Speaker 3: at the moment. The products have been incredibly well received
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  Speaker 3: and as it touched on before, just now it's the
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  Speaker 3: very last deal with ips Farmer in the UK to
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  Speaker 3: take our products into London and throughout the United Kingdom,
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  Speaker 3: and an amazing opportunity not only for Pure but also
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  Speaker 3: for the New Zealand industry to follow.
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  Speaker 2: Sup well, dumbass, So who is it which government agencies
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  Speaker 2: specifically do we need to start hassling about this?
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, we obviously work with a lot of government
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  Speaker 3: agencies and I wouldn't WANDSTAD of doing a shout out
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  Speaker 3: because there is left handed government that's been so so
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  Speaker 3: supportive for us. So we've got the New Zealand Trading Enterprise.
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  Speaker 3: The Ministry of Primary Industries and Treasury have been outstanding
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  Speaker 3: and we wouldn't be able to get to market and
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  Speaker 3: sort of achieve what we have achieved a date without
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  Speaker 3: their support. But on the other hand, we sort of
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  Speaker 3: have aspects of government that are perhaps less supportive. So
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  Speaker 3: obviously the Ministry Health is our regulator who on balance
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  Speaker 3: do do a good job, and there's obviously some very
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  Speaker 3: good people in there. We have a wonderful relationship with
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  Speaker 3: them throwing people under the bus, but yes, we would
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  Speaker 3: prefer if they could be a little bit more proactive
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  Speaker 3: and supportive of the sector, just to ensure that we
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  Speaker 3: know here in New Zealand, we can obviously bring our
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  Speaker 3: products to market because you know, we've got nearly a
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  Speaker 3: thousand sheholders with a huge community support. You know, we're
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  Speaker 3: wonderful sort of success story as far as you know,
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  Speaker 3: taking this new industry forward, and we get asked every
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  Speaker 3: single day from our community why are our products available here?
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  Speaker 3: For Kiwison Sadly, the simple answer is we're not allowed to.
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  Speaker 3: So that that does sit with the Ministry healthy and
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  Speaker 3: obviously be a wonderful outcome if we could have a
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  Speaker 3: more pragmatic conversation with them to cheese some change. But
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  Speaker 3: until then, obviously we're very grateful to be able to
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  Speaker 3: export and so it's a very successful.
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  Speaker 2: Term, very diplomatically done. Well done on that. But also
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  Speaker 2: I think I know where to go and her to
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  Speaker 2: talk to. Do you think all of this, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the the not fear, well, I guess it is a
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  Speaker 2: bit of fear, but a bit of fear in the
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  Speaker 2: red tape. It comes to the fact that it comes
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  Speaker 2: to the fact that it's weed, and for a long
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  Speaker 2: time it was well it's still illegal now, but it
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  Speaker 2: was not to be used or even thought of for use,
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  Speaker 2: and suddenly we've changed the things and it's going to
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  Speaker 2: take us a bit of time to catch up.
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  Speaker 3: That is correct. So there is a lot of sort
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  Speaker 3: of prehistoric stigma and concern around there around the products
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  Speaker 3: and what we sort of have found that the New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand sort of I guess approach to regular in the
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  Speaker 3: industry is I didn't almost a bit uncertainty. So there
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  Speaker 3: is you know, an element of risk involved and because
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  Speaker 3: they're not necessarily sure on how to manage that rest,
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  Speaker 3: they come in with a variable sledgehammer and and sort
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  Speaker 3: of effectively prevent us from accessing markets. So you're being
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  Speaker 3: on it is it is a case of a bit
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  Speaker 3: of bit of a bit of history and a bit
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  Speaker 3: of uncertainty from you know, from from the regulators and
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  Speaker 3: from aspects of government. But you know, we've sort of
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  Speaker 3: proven over the last few years. You know, the industry
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  Speaker 3: has been going for just over five years now and
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  Speaker 3: we've sort of gained the social license that is needed
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  Speaker 3: to you know, to build trust and relationships across all
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  Speaker 3: the aspecks of government. And obviously we'd welcome a conversation
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  Speaker 3: with with our regulator and likewise of the Ministry for
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  Speaker 3: Regulations to you to allow some pragmatic change and allow
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  Speaker 3: Kiwis to start accessing locally ground products.
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  Speaker 2: In the meantime, Tim, keep up the good work. Sounds
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  Speaker 2: like you're doing lots of it. Tim Oldridge with us
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  Speaker 2: the puro CEO
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