TruTrace sales momentum builds on cannabis contracts

Canadian blockchain specialist TruTrace Technologies says its revenues rocketed in the last fiscal year thanks to its efforts to secure the medicinal cannabis supply chain.

Revenues topped C$400,000 ($304,000) in the 12 months to April 30 – a massive increase on the C$10,000 posted in the prior fiscal year – and TruTrace trimmed its losses from almost C$15m to less than C$5m, thanks largely to a big cut in operating expenses from C$9m to C$4m.

The acceleration in revenues comes after TruTrace started a pilot study of its StrainSecure blockchain platform with Canada's largest pharmacy chain – Shoppers Drug Mart – as part of an initiative to supply medicinal cannabis it launched earlier this year in collaboration with Alberta-based Atlas Growers.

Shortly after, TruTrace teamed up with Deloitte to deliver a blockchain product traceability platform to the legal cannabis industry.

In the Shoppers pilot, StrainSecure is being used to provide detailed inventory data to Shoppers for ‘smokeless’ cannabis-based products – including creams, transdermal patches, inhalers and capsules – which are due to start rolling out to the public in the fourth quarter of this year.

Canada is a mature market for cannabis products, with medical cannabis first legalised in 2001 and recreational use by adults given the green light in 2018. Initial expectations for a “green rush” haven’t yet been met however, with massive overproduction and too few licensed retail outlets resulting in a glut of hundreds of tonnes of cannabis plants.

Having a large-scale player like Shoppers involved could help stabilise and grow the market, according to observers, In the meantime, TruTrace has started working with cannabis cultivators and testing laboratories within Canada on systems to track legal cannabis products through the supply chain.

It has also started expanding overseas, signing a partnership with Columbian medicinal cannabis and hemp product producer Clever Leaves, focusing on using StrainSecure throughout its international operations, and is now looking at rolling out the platform in other sectors such as opioid medicines, sanitisation products and medical consumables.

“The role of TruTrace in a ground-breaking medical cannabis study and its use and implementation by a top tier client base has begun to prove our value to the entire medical community,” said Robert Galarza. The company’s CEO.

“It is now time to evolve our platform not only into an industry benchmark in the medical cannabis sector, but as a benchmark for quality in several other key markets.”