Skirmantas Nikstele

In 2013, right before new, liberal, hemp laws came into force in Lithuania, Skirmantas founded Agropro. He used his own capital and successfully negotiated a 107 hectare hemp farming joint venture with the largest farming operator in Baltic states.

He was the first to start converting organic farmers in Baltic states to farming hemp, which later led to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia becoming leaders of Europe’s hemp industry, second only to France. After these rapid changes, he successfully raised investment capital for further growth of Agropro and co-founded Borela, now a global leader in hemp grain processing.

In 2018, he sold Agropro and Borela to Aurora Cannabis Inc, a Canadian global cannabis industry leader. The total value of the deal was €9,917,400.