Cannabis, a crop with a future

The project on the cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic use will be completed at the end of 2022, as stated by the Minister of Environment and Agriculture of the Government of Andorra, Sílvia Calvó, who has appeared at a press conference to announce the public procurement of consultancy services in the drafting of the legal text that should regulate this activity and that has been awarded to the Roca Junyent law firm.

With this award and as confirmed by a statement of the Executive Board, the strategy defined by the Government in the roadmap (Horitzó23) will be followed to facilitate private investment in the cannabis industry used in cosmetics and the pharmaceutical sector.

Andorra has been studying its potential for growing cannabis for some years as a way to diversify the agricultural sector and its economy.

The conclusions of the study carried out by IRTA (Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology of the Generalitat de Catalunya), which has been working for more than ten years on several research and development projects related to the scientific and technological potential of the therapeutic use of cannabis, point out that there would be opportunities for the Principality in the field of agricultural and genomic research and the cultivation and extraction of compounds for the pharmaceutical industry: “Cannabis can be a key crop for the economy, and we believe that Andorra offers the necessary conditions to produce a quality product and to make it profitable” said Josep Usall, current CEO of IRTA.

An opportunity for international economic growth for Andorra.

For the country, the medicinal cannabis industry could bring great international growth, as it offers opportunities to develop a sector of high added value and contribute to the diversification of the local economy.

The United Kingdom and Portugal, where the use of cannabis was decriminalized for therapeutic use in 2003 and 2001 respectively, were two of the leading countries in this sector. In fact, in these states as well as in other European countries, where medical marijuana has been legalized, such as Denmark or the Czech Republic, there are already pharmaceutical multinationals that generate hundreds of thousands of euros a year with the sale of medicaments made with cannabis derivatives. An example is the giant GW Pharmaceuticals licensed exclusively in the United Kingdom to manufacture these medicaments.

If you are interested in this sector and want to know more, at IS21 we will answer your questions and advise you on your future business project.