Colombia becomes a pole of development for the cannabis industry

Published on 12 March 2019

After the wave of legalizations for medicinal use, international investors have set their sights on the country's potential as a space for cultivation and processing.

The medicinal and cosmetic use of Cannabis Sativa, scientific name of the plant commonly known as marijuana, has been considered for years as a taboo due to the historical prohibition of its production. However, as its sale has been legalized for medicinal use in developed and even developing countries, the herb has come to be seen as an industrial input.

In the Colombian case, in 2016 the law was approved for its medicinal use and the following year its regulation, so that the path was left open so that specialized laboratories and agroindustrial could proceed to its cultivation and mass process. In this way, already some Colombian companies have installed cultivation fields and processing plants in areas such as the Cauca Valley or the Santa Marta region, and they begin to become attractive to the eyes of specialized companies from abroad with more years of experience. in the field, and the global vanguard as a result of the longer legality in their countries.

This is the case of several Canadian developers that have acquired stakes in Colombian companies, and that could even aim to develop operations on their own. The climatic conditions of Colombia, as well as access to both oceans, via Buenaventura in the Pacific for the producers of Cauca, and Cartagena or Barranquilla in the case of Santa Marta.

It should be noted that there is cooperation between the governments of Colombia and Canada so that the production and processing of cannabis occurs for scientific purposes. Due to the lack of knowledge of the product as legal merchandise, there are still no statistics available on its export value, but it is expected that large numbers will be registered for the 151590 group items starting in the coming months.

For more information on Colombian exports, you can access the Veritrade portal.
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