Australia’s Legal Cannabis Growers Urge Support Of Nation’s Producers
Australia’s legal cannabis farmers are banding together and warning the nation’s government of looming “catastrophic failures” and a “bleak reality” for the emerging Australian medicinal cannabis industry. The Australian Cannabis Cultivators Guild, which represents a reported 80% of the nation’s legal medical cannabis producers, is urging Australian lawmakers to reform the nation’s regulations.
The newly formed organization is demanding that the Australian government prioritize domestic producers, stating that Australia’s legal medical cannabis cultivators are at a disadvantage and unable to compete with cheaper imported medical cannabis products due to a rigorous and expensive licensing process.
“Without change, we expect to see catastrophic failures across local cultivators, resulting in bankruptcies which will impact Australian supply in the long term,” the guild wrote, according to local coverage by ABC.
According to a Guild member named Cade Turland, the director at Hale Farm in Tasmania, as reported by ABC, “Australian farmers pay about $50,000 annually to maintain their medicinal cannabis licences, including costs like random and routine inspections, which were between $4,800 and $12,800.”
The Therapeutic Goods Administration, which oversees Australia’s medical cannabis industry, has no fees for a licence or permit to import medicinal cannabis, according to ABC‘s local reporting. Over 61% of medical cannabis products in Australia were imported in 2023.
Data from Australia’s government listed Canada as the top source for medical cannabis product imports between 2021 and 2023, with Australia importing 34,005 kilograms of medical cannabis from Canada in 2023. The next closest nation was South Africa at 1,804 kilograms.
Below is a table containing historical Australian government medical cannabis import data broken down by year and originating country:
By comparison, Australia’s legal medical cannabis producers only exported 1,426 kilograms in 2021, 1,510 kilograms in 2022, and 2,066 kilograms in 2023. In 2023, the most recent year for which government data is available, Australia’s domestic medical cannabis growers produced a total of 26,593 kilograms.
A recent rise in imports from Thailand is further exacerbating the market imbalance, according to Cade Turland of Hale Farm.
“The reality is, the Canadian market is buffered from the global markets because you don’t allow imports,” stated Turland, according to initial reporting by StratCann. “We are the dumping ground of the entire world. We have products here from countries where our wages are ten times higher. We can’t compete with Thailand because their general labour costs are much lower.”
“We’ve definitely come a long way quality-wise, but in the beginning, the reality is we would not have been able to serve Australian patients without Canadian imports. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re not dealing with a level playing field because of that import ruling on the Canadian side. Australia hasn’t had that luxury.” Turland continued. “But the issues we’re seeing now with countries like Thailand flooding the market, that’s the real concern for us. We’re fine with Canada because it’s been there all along, and you guys ask a fair price for a fair product, but this increased pressure from Thailand’s market is doubling down on how difficult it is to survive here in Australia.”
