RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a country where the production and consumption of marijuana has been legalized since 2013 and where it has become an export product since 2019, there is now pet food with CBD, produced by Nettalife, a company that manufactures and markets food and pharmaceutical products for animals.
According to the company’s commercial manager Damian Piano, the product is an everyday pet food. Animals do not need to be sick to consume it, as it is not therapeutic food. “We offer tangible wellness, sensitive to the animal’s health through nutrition,” he said.
He said that the food has very low levels of cannabidiol (CBD) enabling it to be everyday food, “where there is no risk of overdose or excessive consumption.”
“It enables a better immune response to any type of ailment pets may have. In parallel, it serves as an anxiolytic, it does not have a sedative effect, but it does serve as a kind of equalizer of the animal’s emotional response,” he explains and adds that “the hemp it contains is a very good source of fiber.”
The pet food was awarded the second prize for best product at ExpoCannabis 2021.
Netapett is just one of the medicinal cannabis-based products of Nettalife, the animal health division of Canadian laboratory Ramm Pharma, which set up in Uruguay because the legislation “allowed it to research, develop and sell.” Other products developed by the company include shampoo with CBD and a painkiller and anti-epileptic medicine.
“We are discovering new uses all the time for medicinal cannabis. We must also demystify the claim that it is good for everything because it is not true, it is not a magic solution for everything. It is true that as we advance and research, we are increasingly understanding new possible and potential uses,” Piano added.
He said that veterinarians who offer the product have had a surprising response and are pleased with the product’s results.
EXPOCANNABIS
The 8th edition of ExpoCannabis was held on December 3, 4 and 5 in Montevideo. According to its organizers, it is the most important information platform on cannabis and hemp in Latin America.
“We are very pleased. It is a celebration of a whole industry, of a whole sector that needs access to these opportunities to normalize and institutionalize these possibilities occurring in Latin America,” said the head of the event Mercedes Ponce de León.
According to data provided by Uruguay XXI, a study showed that the cannabis sector in Uruguay generates over 1,000 direct jobs and in 2019 it entered a “stable export flow.” Products worth US$7.5 million were exported in 2020 and US$5.2 million thus far in 2021.