An Alberta medical marijuana company is blazing the trail on the international market, expanding its sales to a second European country.

Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc., a medical cannabis producer with an 800,000-square-foot production facility near the Edmonton International Airport, has struck a deal to be the first and only private international pot manufacturer to sell in Italy.

Through its German subsidiary, Aurora was the successful bidder in a public tender to supply medical marijuana directly to the Italian government.

“This is a sign of things to come,” Cam Battley, Aurora’s chief corporate officer, told CBC News. “As each new medical cannabis market in the EU [European Union] opens up, we’re going to be able to participate.”

Aurora already operates in Germany through Pedanios, its first foreign marijuana distributor, based in Berlin.

The product will be manufactured in Canada, then exported to Berlin, where it will go through Italy’s Ministry of Defence and then into the market.

In 2015, Aurora was the first medical marijuana operation in Alberta granted a licence by Health Canada, originally at a production facility in Mountain View County, north of Calgary.

The company also operates out of Pointe-Claire, Que. and is currently building a fourth Canadian facility in Lachute, Que. [Read more at CBC News]