Is The Caribbean And Latin America The New Source For “Canadian” Cannabis?
Another cannabis comer outside the United States but in the American hemisphere has announced a shipment INTO Canada. Global Canna Labs, based in Jamaica, announced a 10kg (about 22 lb) shipment with the blessing of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries last week. The company has a 270,000 square foot facility in Montego Bay.
Does this herald a new legit “Drug Economy” channel that Bob Marley could have only dreamed about? Especially with new regulations in place in Canada that require growers to have completed their grow farms prior to submitting an application, as well as a backlog in licensing, supply, and price, if not the overall seed to sale issues still plaguing the Canadian market?
To a certain extent, yes. The “Drug War” was always ferocious at the U.S. border because the economies of drug cultivation beat just about every crop grown south of the Rio Grande.
These days, swapping cannabis for coffee beans (at a minimum) is clearly on the minds of cultivators all over Latin America. It is cheaper, it is becoming legit, and there is still a huge demand if the right channels are tapped.
And while Canada is the first “target” for their exports, can the U.S. be far behind? It certainly seems to make more sense economically to be able to import within the same hemisphere rather than (as is also going on) across the Atlantic to Europe.
The Next “Trade War?”
While it may still seem laughable to those who realize that cannabis is still a banned and highly stigmatized substance in many countries still, let alone the high seas of international trade, there is a looming trade war shaping up on the cultivation front. Cannabis, for all its quirks and intrigue, is still a plant, and plants can and indeed are being increasingly commoditized in this space. Just like say, bananas. Or coffee. Or oranges.
And while at least in the U.S. this is still a long way off, states cannot even trade with each other yet. Expect this issue to be increasingly in the room.
In Europe, as of 2020, international trade is the only way to obtain cannabis from any country or hemisphere, and Germany, as the largest market, is drawing firms from all over the world, hoping to source its medical market.
The only “trade war” here, in other words, is companies, from all over the world, but also on the same continent, who cannot wait to get in – and start doing business.
Don’t miss the International Cannabis Business Conference in Europe next year in Barcelona, Berlin, and Bern!
