Features

Export markets beckon Green Mountain

Published on October 17, 2025 by Pat Bulmer

Photo: Contributed

An agricultural certification will open up a world of opportunities for an Okanagan cannabis company.

Medical and craft cannabis producer Green Mountain can pursue export opportunities after receiving Good Agricultural and Collection Practices certification.

It’s “one of the requirements which the European Union needs for any product to enter into Europe,” said CEO Salil Dhaumya in a phone interview.

“This globally recognized standard ensures the highest quality in cannabis cultivation and harvesting, enabling Green Mountain to meet stringent international regulations and export premium medical cannabis for distribution worldwide,” a company news release said.

The company obtained the certification “following a rigorous audit process,” the Sept. 26 announcement said.

The first batches of GACP-certified product should be ready for market in December. That’s when the company will really have something to show potential buyers.

“Like anything else, it’s about building relationships and engaging with the buyers, Dhaumya explained. “We started that process already.

“We have quite a few strains that we grow. We believe that we should be able to get traction for our products into the European market because of it.”

Green Mountain has a 17,000 square-foot indoor greenhouse in the Penticton/Kaleden area, a 4,800-square-foot processing facility and recently started a large covered outdoor grow, Dhaumya said. More growing areas are planned.

With strong financial backing from the Manitoba Metis Federation, the company is seeing considerable growth with innovative growing techniques, Dhaumya said.

“We are very proud of the quality of the products we grow. We’re starting to see wonderful results.”

Green Mountain’s own experts have been adapting their knowledge to the cannabis-friendly dry local climate to create their own success story, the CEO said.

“We have people who have a very good understanding of plant science and they’re adapting their experience to growing cannabis,” Dhaumya said. “We primarily rely on people who have academic background in plant science (but also) some hands-on experience in growing, cultivating anything.”

The company has also learned what doesn’t work.

“We know that in the Canadian market, there have been growers who have professed that they’ve been going cannabis for 20 years or 10 years or 13 years. But in my experience, I did not find success in their way of doing things.

“We’ve doubled our yields from last year …. And next year we’ll be able to increase our yield by another 50%. We are seeing success with the quality of our products.”

Green Mountain Health Alliance (that’s the full name) has all the offerings you’d expect — its flower, pre-rolls, vapes and more are available in BC, Ontario and Manitoba, soon in Saskatchewan and likely Alberta in a few months, Dhaumya said.

Business isn’t just good, it’s stable, he said — which is saying something in an industry like cannabis.

“We are going to be profitable this year. One of the reasons is that we keep a very tight control on the overhead,” he said, noting that and a focus on quality have paid off.

“The reality is there’s a price compression because of excess supply in the market that existed, which has more or less resolved itself, but prices are still way lower than where they were.”

But “even with where the prices are, if you’re growing a good quality product, then you already have a valuable proposition for your end consumer.”

“We see that the consumer is coming back and buying the product. and so I think we do have a recipe of success.”

Green Mountain’s future may include going beyond cannabis in developing natural health products

“Now that the business is stable, we are looking at the medical side. We are exploring opportunities. It can be anything, any natural products, formulations, nutraceuticals, which may have cannabis as a component, or not.

“In the near future, our effort is going to be to see if we can acquire such formulations, or develop such formulations, where we can start another division within the company.”

A company needs the GACP certification before it can seek GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certification, which is another important certification for cannabis exporters, Agropharm, a Spanish-based cannabis consulting firm, explains on its website. GACP covers the agricultural side and GMP the processing side, more or less.