"Everyone who can grow a tomato, can grow a pot plant"

Meteor Systems, a major manufacturer of horticultural systems based in Breda, hopes to be one of the beneficiaries of a revamped cannabis law in the Netherlands. It produces everything from the irrigation systems used by Dutch tomato growers to the suspension and support systems for commercial flower growers in California.

Since the proposed legalization of cannabis in Canada and several American states, the company has also seen demand increase for its products from legal marijuana growers there. For instance, it is helping to equip greenhouses in British Columbia for the company Canopy Growth. When finished, they will house three million square feet of growing surfaces.

The company hopes to leverage the commercial know-how gained in North American markets to score big in the Netherlands when cannabis production becomes legalized here.

For all the legal challenges around marijuana, growing the plant with professional equipment is much less demanding than a number of other crops, according to Peter Lexmond, Meteor’s commercial director.

“Everyone who can grow a tomato, can grow a pot plant,” he said.

Read more at The New York Times (Christopher F. Schuetze)