Colombia completes first commercial export of medical cannabis to Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Company Pideka completed its first commercial shipment of medical cannabis with THC from its crops grown in Tocancipá (Cundinamarca) to Mexico.

According to company estimates, this market could represent US$20 billion in the next five years and has close to 1 million potential patients eligible for treatment with these components.

The company also expects to be a major player in Europe and to multiply the number of jobs in the country by 5 in two years.

“This is a very important step we have accomplished together with ProColombia and other Colombian government bodies, which allows us to establish ourselves in a market as important as the Mexican, to sell medical cannabis oil with THC to the public or private sector. This can be used by the pharmaceutical industry to address four fronts: chronic pain such as arthritis, different types of epilepsy, insomnia, stress and anxiety, and to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients. The Mexican client chose this Colombian-origin product because of production, quality and legislation issues,” said Pideka’s CEO, Borja Sanz de Madrid.

Pideka was founded in Colombia as part of the Canadian international holding company Ikanik Farms and has North American, Latin American and Spanish investment. It employs just over 30 people and expects to have 150 employees by 2022.

“ProColombia has been working for several years with the industry, supporting it in terms of regulation, investment promotion, exports and identifying opportunities in markets where regulation allows access to these products, such as Germany and the United Kingdom,” the government agency said.

Accordingly, Procolombia has developed medical cannabis profiles in destinations such as Germany, Peru, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom and Brazil, in order to define permits, licenses and other requirements to sell the products to the target market.

The entrepreneur estimates that in the next 2 to 3 years they could be exporting between US$80 million and US$100 million in medical cannabis with THC from Colombia, considering that a liter of the product can cost around US$45,000.

“This is a conservative estimate, based on the amount of liters we produce per year, which we will gradually increase. We see a great demand in Mexico and we also aim to serve the European market, having already seen interest from pharmaceutical companies in Denmark and England. Once Asia starts legalizing its first products, it could be a very important continent in terms of demand. In that respect, we aim to be one of the main players worldwide, thanks to our efficiency model,” said Pideka’s CEO.

For its part, Procolombia stressed that Colombia’s regulatory framework for this sector is one of the most complete at the international level, as it includes measures ranging from seeding, cultivation, processing, generation of added value and safe access by patients.

In addition, according to figures from DANE, between January and November 2020, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Germany and Switzerland were the top buyers of medical cannabis from Colombia. The rise has been exponential as in that period, exports increased from US$275,000 in 2019 to US$4.7 million, a growth of over 1,600%.

On the other hand, in early February, medical cannabis producers voiced their concern to Colombian President Iván Duque over the deterioration in international prices and the regulatory impediments to export the dried plant to generate income.

Source: Semana