New perspectives on how to set up the best cannabis cultivation facility | Written by MMJDaily

A few months ago, Royal Brinkman, the global solution provider for the horticultural industry came up with a new concept that would provide cannabis growers with a one-stop shop for all of their questions on how to set up the best cannabis cultivation facility. That’s how Can-Hub came into being. Now, after some time of successful projects carried out around the world, Leo Lievaart with Can-Hub is ready to share his thoughts on these first months of activity. Leo Lievaart, Commercial Manager Royal Brinkman International: “At Royal Brinkman, we were receiving many requests and questions about cannabis products and advice,” he says. “We wanted to share our worldwide knowledge with our customers. So, we found that it was necessary that we connected all of our global export and suppliers under one umbrella.”

Global team of experts

By creating Can-Hub, Royal Brinkman has united all of its experts on cannabis cultivation, thus providing the company with a global overview of the cannabis industry. “This project started with an outburst of energy from everyone at Royal Brinkman,” he says. “And we have kept the momentum since. Every week, we do meetings with our Can-Hub team from around the world to update each other. In this way, when a grower comes to us, we can discuss it from a global and multi-disciplinary way. By doing so, if we have questions about growing or regulations, we have the right expert coming in with the right advice.”

This is particularly important in an industry that is so different in each country. “Not everybody has the same regulations and circumstances,” Leo remarks. “We can rely on a wide variety of discipline experts: hygiene, substrates, environmental control; we can tick all the boxes that are necessary to locally grow the best crop.”

In search of excellence

Indeed, such an approach has proved itself to be particularly successful. “We have received an immense response,” Leo says. “We have been having a lot of new international contacts, which showed how much people have been searching for advice. Growers really want to hear a different perspective, and we are able to think through what is popular in one country, what is successful in one country, and implement that concept elsewhere, where we know it can be successful.” The need for expert advice has sprouted even more recently, with the cannabis industry entering a new phase, where companies are much more aware of the risks involved in such operations. “Every grower is looking for a certain amount of standardization,” Leo points out. “We came out of the vegetable industry, and we can make a difference in many different fields when it comes to controlled environment agriculture. We know the importance of efficiency in such large-scale or indoor cultivation operations, and the importance of having a sustainable model that ensures a reliable ROI. When you want to have a good ROI, the crop needs to be excellent, and thus equally excellent the growing conditions need to be.”

Total supplier at the highest certification level

Based on the experience and expertise of Royal Brinkman, worldwide partner for the horticulture industry, Can-Hub can facilitate the steps for setting up a facility to achieve the best crop. “Our knowledge is based on yield improvement, but the industry is also looking to standardize. We are not pushing one standard only, we think it is very important to respect the cultivar you are growing and what you want to produce, and then standardize the facility around those conditions: people should really be aware of what they want to achieve.”

At the same time, what really characterizes Can-Hub is something that is particularly common in the cannabis industry as a whole: energy and passion. “We love the industry,” Leo remarks. “The energy that is so common in the industry is also in Can-Hub. For instance, when we see things going positively in Portugal, or elsewhere, just to name a few, we get very excited. That’s what I think people have been appreciating the most about us, and what drives us to be the best every day. We are part of this industry, and we want it to express the full extent of its potential.

''We don’t wear jackets, we have no ties, we are simply Can-Hub. A team to serve all stakeholders.”