The Cole Memo

Coca leaves have limited access. For the past 130 years, Coca-Cola has monopolized the legal importation and processing of the coca leaf. Harbour Solutions recently ended that monopoly. 

Harbour Solutions is in a category of one as the sole Canadian authorized importing agent for the only legal source of coca leaves and its derivatives in the world. Harbour is providing an end-to-end supply chain resource, with legal leaf cultivation and importation in accordance with UN sanctioned regulations and GMP certified processing.

In this episode, I sit down with the CEO of Harbour Solutions, David Craig. 

Read more about Harbour Solutions at Harboursolution.com/

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The auto-generated transcript is available below

today I’m joined by David Craig David say hi to our audience please hello everybody Cole thanks for having me uh you can find me at uh Harbor solution.com if you want to find out more thanks Co absolutely and folks we’ll have that link in the description for this episode if that makes it easier for you you can just go down there and click it this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of that episode and within that as I just mentioned you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this uh episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from Simply note the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to access the AUD audio video and transcript version and you will also find any links that we reference which again will have David’s website in the podcast description so that you might be able to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the Cole memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode a bit later than our patrons to become a patron it’s only $3 a month you can go to the memo.com patreon once again that’s the co memo.com Pat o n it’s a great way to support our show but one the best ways to support our show is free subscribe to or follow our show leave us a positive review share it with your friends and family today is December 5th 2023 and once again David I want to thank you for joining me today um wanted to give you the floor I got this email and I was like uh Emily was probably Emily who helped me book this phone call with you or sorry Emma I believe was her name um she was probably like wow this guy emails back quick cuz I got this email and I was like hell yeah I want David on my show tell people about yourself and your company absolutely thank you so much for having me Cole so my name’s David Craig I’m the current CEO of Harbor uh we are uh a company that has a vision of the world achieving its full potential um how do we do that we do that through the creation and developing of bleeding Ed Pro bleeding edge products that ultimately are for people that lead with their heart so to Define that what differentiates our our business is disruptive ingredients so one of those ingredients that we use that is very unique to our company is the cocoa Leaf so when whenever we say the cocoa Leaf people’s ears prop up and they’re like wait a second Coco leaf and they they they start thinking about Tony Montana and all kinds of you know Hollywood images the fact is it’s it’s an absolute super plant and when we the the origin story of our business was essentially uh driven by a a policy change in Canada uh to combat the the toxic drug epidemic that was happening in Canada it’s also happening in the states so over 10 people a day were dying from drug overdoses and so the government of Vancouver decided that they would decriminalize all narcotics in Vancouver so we we as a business as as a number of us that come from the background of of controlled substance and cannabis and still sabon thought there there needs to be a way for us to be able to provide a legal source to the policy makers to be able to combat this this problem and provide a safe Supply so we opened our eyes to that and we found that the coca leaf has so much more to offer than just that so we pivoted our business but I I’ll leave it there to start and if you have some more specific questions we can we can go down that path sure sure and I’m not exactly sure where to start but I thought that maybe maybe a good place to start and feel free if you think there’s a better place to start to you know pull me back or whatever but I’ve you know always found it fascinating and this is one of the things that was mentioned to me when when it was floated the idea of you coming on was that coca colola my one of my favorite it’s like my guilty pleasure drink uh because they’re one of the number one polluters in the world but they also make such a tasty drink I can’t have a meal without it um they also have a monopoly on the legal coca leaf importation and processing for I’m reading the past 130 years um I don’t know I just thought that was an interesting place to start you want to talk about that that is that is a very important place to start so so Coca-Cola for 130 years has essentially kept the coca leaf in a box okay they it’s you know part of their secret ingredients and they have gone to in fact the same exact supplier that we have signed an an international trade agreement with is the same supplier that supplies Coca-Cola with its coca leaf inputs that go into the the extracted flavor that goes into the Coca-Cola now what they did was way back one company in the US was granted an exemption by the DEA the only company ever to receive this exemption is called steeping company out of New Jersey and they were allowed to bring in Coco Leaf process it and take the extract and sell it so they take the the quote unquote controlled substance or the cocaine portion out of course and then they sell the the flavor extract to Coca-Cola and they’re the only company who was ever allowed to do that and Coca-Cola was their only customer so Coca-Cola basically had this locked up nobody else could get what they were putting in their Coca-Cola so Along Comes Harbor and we um we realized that uh it was possible to make an agreement with this this same supplier there were there were not at the time limitations against that um we’ve since you know signed an agreement that gives us certain protections with regards to commercializing the product um so where their agents now in Canada and can sell internationally but the most important part is that we can take that same decoiz extract and we can import it legally into Canada which we have done historically uh we’ve done it a number of times so now we can we know that we can move commercial quantities uh and Export to the United States so those are two things that nobody’s been been able to do since Coca-Cola so we’ve we’ve broken up that Monopoly and we have a a whole plan as to how we’ll we’ll bring it to Market but as I say this is just part of Harbor Harbor is also uh just in general creating products that ultimately give our customers that give people the things that they want the good things without the bad things so so if I give you an example so one of the one of the SKS that we are planning to go or bring out to Market is a coca leaf infused energy drink okay so think of Red Bull or think of you know monster MH it’s it’s a $50 billion Market okay when you think about what goes into those energy drinks for the most part it’s bad okay there’s a ton of caffeine there’s a ton of sugar they’re all comes of harmful chemicals people generally know if they’re drinking energy drinks that it’s it’s not good for you right so now here comes Harbor we’ve got something different we’ve got a cocoa infused and energy drink no caffeine no sugar all the same energy creation and biofunctional benefits but none of the bad things so typically again if we’re just talking about energy drinks it’s caffeine that gives you that lift sugar gives you that lift in Cocoa Leaf there’s a compound that actually helps with the oxygenation of your blood so if you can imagine if all of the cells in your body are able to access more oxygen in your blood you’re going to feel a lift right you’re going to feel more energy but it’s not a jittery energy and it’s it doesn’t come with the bad things that an energy drink has so all of our products are like that essentially we’re bringing things to the market where people are going to get all the benefits but they’re not going to have to pay the price of you know the guilt of the bad things that typically all these other products have yeah and that’s one of the things I have heard about like a uh Coco drinks is that you know you get that same lift that you’re looking that you know it’s like that initial lift and it’s almost like everything from there can be a little questionable I like coffee is dangerous for me I can’t drink more than like a cup and like you say I start to get jittery I get I can get like hot or sometimes I can even get cold like and um what I’ve heard about cocoa tea or just cocoa drinks is that you still get that lift like you say but without the crash without the Jitters stuff like that exactly exactly there there it’s basically all of the good and none of the bad and I mean it’s so cocoa Leaf um has been used widely in South America for thousands of years okay so there’s studies that show that it helps with appetite suppressant or appetite excuse me um that it is uh anti-inflammatory it helps with digestive function um it’s a natural source of energy as as I mentioned a remedy for um altitude sickness which is around that blood oxygenation piece as you go higher obviously it’s harder to access oxygen you take a Coca for for some sort of C product and it helps to allow your body to access that oxygen again so it’s got all of these different functions that are found in the leaf even after you extract out the the you know controlled substance portion that we can now put into specific SKS that ultimately serve needs in the marketplace and these are these are Big markets so if you think about again people who have an interest in weight loss um one of our SKS we’re intending to come out with is an appetite suppressant gummy so you know similar to OIC it’s a huge Market people go out there and they’re they’re you know taking these shots that are very expensive that were not intended for weight loss um so there there are side effects of taking those sorts of of you know whatever uh drugs to try to control your weight whereas with a natural appetite plant-based appetite suppressant you’re not again subjecting yourself to the harm that you may be if you’re taking some of these other chemicals or other drugs so it’s it’s exciting for us um we like the position that we’re taking in terms of of helping and bringing things to par to Market that people can really Embrace and it’s it’s more about it’s more about entering in at a community level and and help having people discover our products and having like for example we have we have a new product that we’re bringing out it’s a hydration product it’s called quench um Harbor is is about to announce an acquisition where we he brought the team into our business that originally founded bioeel so bioeel was is basically a primarily a hydration brand um with ready to drink and powders and so on and they built $140 Million worth of sales with this type of strategy of working in community of sponsoring you know hockey tournaments of working in basketball gyms and whatnot points of sweat essentially people where they could bring people together and say look at here’s something that’s going to help you with hydration it’s better for you it doesn’t have any sugar it’s the the proper blend for bioavailability to allow you to hydrate your body try it out and that grew their business to $140 million so we’re we’re taking a similar path and that we’re going to communities and providing them with solutions that ultimately give them what they want without all the that yeah it’s an exciting thing yeah well it sounds like you have a lot of different um different different products like a lot of them that I would figure you know like a gummy format a energy drink format um maybe even do you have like uh you know a t format like I was saying are those the kind of different formats that you might have there are a number of products so again with any with any business you need to grow you know at a pace that is that is sustainable we have a we have a plan essentially we have products with our our acquisition um of John and his team that are ready to go so so we’re actually in in like they’re they’re formulated they’re they’re shelf tested they’re approved uh for sale in in Canada and the US with health Canada and FDA um all of the packaging and all of that is finished completed and it’s essentially just the run time to be to be be able to actually produce the product so that that will be happening in the first quarter of 2024 we currently have purchase orders for that product of over $12 million and what Our intention is is to use those relationships that have been developed over 14 years with with John’s team and go into those distribution networks with those established relationships with those those products that are already approved and sold to the market and expand our Market that way and then our Coco infused products which are just in the process of getting all the regulatory checks and balances kind of checked off will follow in behind and ultimately again through the same relationships the same networks our our energy drink will be brought to Market by the guys that actually brought another major major energy drink bar Market or or uh brand to Market I won’t say who they are got to keep some Secrets but um it’s it’s going to be a big deal so we’re we’re excited we have a really good path we’ve got some amazing products we are only going to launch the ones that we can support as we go but in total we would have an energy drink we will have a an appetite suppressant we will have a full Sports Nutrition line we will have a hydration line and uh that’s just the beginning and and the thing about Harbor I told you were about um disruptive ingredients and to us what a disruptive ingredient is something that can deliver what people want with the bad and in many cases those are difficult to come by so cocoa leaves is it’s it’s a difficult path you know not just anybody can go out there and buy Coco leav we we’ve tied up our supply so that’s another thing about Harbor is we have that competitive mode around our our supply so it would be very difficult for anybody else to compete with us right and uh you mentioned the idea of possibly getting into the United States I was just curious you know it sounds like the the policy is uh a little bit more friendly in Vancouver than the the United States with regard to like what you can and can’t do does that play into into you moving into the United States or or are you just like pretty well good to go we are we are working strictly in a non-scheduled or non-controlled substance Marketplace okay so we are not importing any alkaloids or anything that is controlled um we’re not a CO P company you know it just so happens that that stigma is associated with cocoa leaves but that is a very very small part of the actual leaf and that is not a part of what we are doing at Harbor so it’s uh we don’t have any issues with regards to bringing the product into the country we we utilized our um I guess the expertise of our our import Brokers um our legal and Regulatory Consultants initially to be able to to frame it properly to to say okay this is what it is it’s identified as this check and see if there’s any rules regulations that say that it can’t come into the country and based on what we provided them we’ve navigated the path so it can come into the country so so that’s that’s what we did and now we’re doing all the checks and balances so that The Regulators that you know watch out for the citizens and food safety are satisfied that the products that we’re bringing in are in fact safe for use Coca-Cola has used it for years um and in South America there’s there’s all kinds of demonstrated uses for thousands of years right so we’re very confident in our ability to get these approvals but nobody has done this nobody’s done this so it’s a it’s a really big Market where you’re able to provide something that others can’t yeah I’m curious do you have a lot of people uh before I move on to our final questions to close out the show do you have a lot of people knocking down your door in the sense that the the way that question’s coming from or where that question’s coming from is I’ve heard that like companies like Pepsi for example really really really tried to get access to the cocoa leaf and somehow they like again I don’t know the full story I think I heard this on some Stoner podcast like mine and uh right but I heard that uh Pepsi like really wanted because that is what gave Coke that edge that flavor and I heard that Pepsi really wanted it but never could get it have you had like other people reaching out to you since you said you’re one of the only people to get that connection with this company absolutely absolutely so so there are number of cpg companies that are hungry for these ingredients and for the reasons that I’ve described but also for the the flavor profile and it’s got cach the fact that you can say that there’s C Lea in something is actually cache um one of the members of our team is actually the ex national sales director for Pepsi so he understands exact L the product development process that they go through and so what what we’re doing is we’re bringing our own products to Market first we’re going to create our own Brands and put those out in the market with a strategy where whereby the you know we feel they’d be adopted and then from that point we have all the criteria that major brands Major cpg Brands like Pepsi like scheps like Nabisco like whoever ultimately would need in order to say okay let’s invest in creating some skis with cocoa leaf and so our that’s our that’s kind of a second step for us so starting off it’s our own Brands we do have these inquiries but we want to bring the products to Market first control the supply control the the the uh positioning I guess of of the products because we feel that’s important um so that the wrong stigma isn’t associated with with the products and then let the big boys come in and and have their turn yeah and do you think this was kind of how I was going to wrap up with a few questions uh that that I feel based on what you just said maybe this comes after what you just described so maybe still far off into the future but I’m just curious do you foresee a future in which a consumer could buy some cocoa Leaf just over the counter uh that would be a policy decision so Coco Leaf as it stands is a a scheduled or controlled substance so COC Leaf does have an alkaloid in it which is used to make cocaine and because of that even though it’s a very small amount it’s it’s prohibited in both Canada and the US so if the policy Chang then I guess people could do that um however the the benefits that you you like to derive from a COC Leaf you can still have all those without that alkaloid piece the the cocaine piece so we’re we’re presenting that and certainly you be able to for for example down the road as a product we develop you could buy a matcha that you would put into you know and have in the morning for a for a tea type of drink um but it would have that alkaloid removed so there’s definitely you know it’s it’s going mainstream we’re the company that’s bringing it to the mainstream and North America is just the beginning we have international um sales channels as well um but we’re we’re starting you know in our own backyard uh we are going to drive this business and then eventually yes bringing our products to the world yeah and I hope you get where that question comes from it’s like the the cpg options are always really cool just like with cannabis right like I love a good oldfashioned edible or cannabis drink but there’s nothing better than good old natural and what I’m you go back to the historical uses from what I understand people in the countries where Coco Le uh grows kids adults elderly you name it they’ll grab a leaf off and just chew into it you know and that’s where that question comes from so I just wondered if you foresee a future like that um if the policy I mean that would that would that would be a wonderful thing to see because Coco leaves have all these amazing benefits so so chewing a cocoa Leaf is nothing like you know using cocaine there’s there’s a very very very small amount of the alkaloid in a COC leaf and so what it does is it actually mixes with your your the fluids in your mouth and dissolves slowly and you get kind of this this overall feeling in your body that is that is it’s a nice feeling it’s it’s not like a high or a buzz it’s it’s just a it’s just a good good feeling and so um I wish I hope that there’s an opportunity for that to happen here because it you know it’s been free and open in South America for thousands of years and we we actually visited Peru when we went we signed our agreement and it’s it’s like a it’s a spiritual thing there like anywhere you go there’s cocoa leaves available everywhere and people Infuse it into their lives it’s not just you know a product it’s like something that’s actually worshiped it’s something that is part of their daily routine and so it would be great if North America um would Embrace something like that and allow Coke Leaf to be in the marketplace uh and Hope Harbor would be the one that gets to introduce that yeah yeah and I’ll even add just because I you know I really am I like what you just described that culture descri that that you described I I would love it if you you know there was even if it was from Harbor if it wasn’t from Harbor just the idea yeah if you could acquire the natural product or even and I know this is another step grow it yourself at home you know what I mean well we’ll walk before we run the point the point is is we’ve opened the door we are innovators um I’ve I’ve told you a bit of kind of our vision and our mission we really ultimately want to help the world achieve its full potential and we think by providing people with products that that offer them all the good without the bad that it’s it just opens the door to all those possibilities and you know today today it may be Coke Leaf as the the hero inred tomorrow it may be something else but that’s our plan is to basically bring things to Market that are providing some sort of benefit and that are good for you and more specifically are not bad for you yeah well said well said into to close like related to that point you know uh I’ve spoken to somebody actually from Vancouver as well you might know this person uh Dana Larson and he described what is called the Ironclad rule of prohibition and so to your point that you just brought up earlier coca folks is not at all the same as cocaine and and you could actually argue maybe that cocaine is a result of our war on drugs because otherwise people would choose the natural form they would and they do traditionally and culturally speaking but then when it get when it comes to exporting it and everything else that you have to do when you’re battling the War on Drugs the Ironclad law of prohibition causes drugs to become more potent you know synthesized Etc and so cocaine is just I would say a side effect of the War on Drugs but I want to be clear like you said David that coca is I always like to say it’s organic Don’t Panic so that’s well said that’s well said well I I agree with you with regards to the War on Drugs it’s been it’s been going on for for decades and ultimately it has produced nothing but you know bad outcomes yeah so I think I think the time is to you know decriminalize things and start to take more of a health care or health and wellness approach to um many of these Controlled Substances because all of them have good things that come out of them too it’s just it’s you know any any substance pretty much if you abuse it could be considered bad for you um and the again the Warren drugs has really just created these Frameworks that are dangerous that that provide products that are potentially dangerous um just in terms of the the composition of them the environment which you have to deal and trade for them is is dangerous as well and again it’s because it’s all had to go under the shadows initially the years and years ago there was a lot of research being done around the Coco leaf and then when when prohibition came in the United States when prohibition came into place it was like throwing a wet blanket over all of it and so it all stopped so all of the good things that were being created and done with Coco Leaf just stopped and so what we’re doing we’re now re-engaging with that um working with scientific labs to get all the technical compounds and information about it and then really you know weigh into the science around coca leaf and how it might be able to be implemented going forward so that’s that’s another thing that Harbor’s doing we’re paying for the research so that we are the authorities that we understand what it is all about and we’re doing it in a framework where it’s not illegal and so it’s it’s it’s doing away with that stigma of this is an illegal thing but it’s also creating and opening the door to what this amazing plant can do in a way that’s legal so it’s it’s it’s exciting it’s the best we can do at this point maybe we’ll we’ll get to a point eventually where prohibition ceases yeah well David I want to thank you for doing what you have done to push the pendulum forward before we go did you have anything that you wanted to mention that we didn’t mention in this episode already uh I mean really just that we’re we we are a growing company um we have come a very long way in a short period of time uh we are listing publicly in q1 of 2024 um so all of those interested in participating uh will be able to do so on a on a a a public exchange uh and up until that time we we have a a couple of series rounds of investment that are are open to accredited investors so if you have an interest please VIs visit our website and uh take a look at what it is that we’re doing reach out to us uh by email hopefully Cole you can include my email and your in your uh yeah the the the information below and and uh reach out to us and we we we’ll be happy to tell you more about how you might be able to come along with us on this ride absolutely folks it’s Harbor Solutions the world’s leading coca plant company once again the uh website is in the podcast description I’ll also put David’s contact information in there if you’d like to get in touch uh for investment purposes or or for whatever um so David I want to thank you so much for your time today and once again thank you for doing what you are doing to push that pendulum forward it’s been a pleasure call thank you so much y take care okay you too