United Craft Growers is a micro cultivator and processor located a few hours north of Montreal at their Weedon Botanique farm, located in Weedon, Quebec.

An outdoor and greenhouse grower, the small team focuses on growing and processing flower into live hash rosin. Grown using organic and living soil practices, David Selema, the company’s founder and president, says the company has primarily focused on serving its small-batch products in Canada’s medical cannabis market.

The choice not to grow inside under lights was both a financial one as well as a quality one, Selema says. 

“We would not have been able to afford an indoor facility, but our goal was to produce organically, under the sun,” he explains. “Sungrown, organic, living soil makes for great rosin. We wanted to grow for rosin, so this really was the only way for us at the end of the day.”

First licensed in 2022, Selema says he and his small team were able to hit the ground running quickly, drawing on their experience in the legacy and medical markets, as well as their legacy-era brand, Pharmabee. 

Although the product was briefly available in the Ontario market, Selema says he had to make the decision to move to selling only through a handful of medical platforms like Mendo or Spectrum because it was a better fit for a smaller company. With not only smaller batches of product, but also a smaller team with a limited marketing budget, navigating the complexities of a market like Ontario, he said, was just not the right fit. 

“As a small company, I don’t have the marketing budget and team to go into a market like Ontario, especially with the pay-to-play market being so common and our limited inventory, so we have found the medical market a better fit.”

The micro grower also sells their fresh frozen flowers in bulk to micro-processors such as Lady Jane Labs who produce concentrates under the brand Sauce Rosin Labs.

Another benefit is that Selema has operated a medical cannabis access platform, Cover Leaf, since 2017, where they help people seeking to access cannabis for medical purposes connect with a physician, which has given them brand awareness among a large patient base of over 8,000 people across Canada.

Still, he says if the company can scale up—something he’s seeking investors for at the moment—he would look at re-entering provincial markets, with his eye on Ontario’s flow-through distribution system. 

Scaling up for United Craft Growers would mean adding more greenhouses and replacing some of their current outdoor space, both things Selema says he and his team have found are necessary, given the micro-climate their farm is located in. They currently produce around 2000kg/year, and hope to scale up to about four times that. 

“We wanted to do the outdoor model in a way that was adapted to the shorter seasons here, a colder season, so our simple greenhouses give us that opportunity while still giving our plants and terpenes the natural light they want.”

He adds that the lower cost also helps them ensure they can deliver a high-quality product at a reasonable price. 

In addition to Selema, who operates much of the administration, marketing and front end of the company, United Craft Growers consists of his partner Angelo Servedio, who handles facilities operation and their master grower and hash maker, Louise Bennet. Selma’s mom also helps manage the books, and the company brings in some local help for planting and harvest duties. 

“We’re a small company, and we want to stay small. That is where we find our strength. But we believe we can scale up a bit to meet demands while keeping that integrity. That is the most important.”

“We grow it, process it, we fill the vape, package the vapes, and then bring them to one of our medical partners. We really do it all here.”

This adherence to a strict quality is what may keep Pharmabee out of Quebec’s market, which is expected to begin allowing sales of vapes by the Fall of 2025, due to the province’s 30% THC limit on extracts. 

“I would like to, but I’m not willing to compromise on my product, and 30% means I would have to compromise. Still, perhaps there is something unique we can find for that. We’ll have to see.”