Uruguay exports largest-ever shipment of high-THC cannabis flower, but buyer remains a mystery

A shipment of medical cannabis exported from Uruguay to Europe, at the end of 2019, is raising controversy about the identity of the buyer and the large volume of cargo. About a ton of high-THC cannabis flower was legally exported from Uruguay to Portugal late last year, from according to Uruguayan customs documents analyzed by the newspaper Marijuana Business Daily. Importer and destination are unknown.

By way of comparison, Germany – the largest importer of medical cannabis flower in the world – imported an average of 542 kilograms per month in 2019 for pharmaceutical distribution. The Uruguayan shipment – ​​perhaps the largest international shipment of medical cannabis ever – mirrors a medical cannabis industry
increasingly global, still taking its first steps.

However, the importer, purpose and final destination of the product remain a huge secret.

The customs document reveals that the certified producer Photomer Life Sciences, headquartered in Uruguay, exported cannabis to Portugal for US$3,2 million, including cost, insurance and fees. The Portuguese importer is not identified in the document, dated 23 October 2019. The Portuguese regulatory agency responsible for authorizing imports (Infarmed) revealed that the information requested by the newspaper MJBizDaily “is not public”.

Portugal has a regulatory framework that allows for the domestic sale of medical cannabis. But no Portuguese company has managed to obtain the necessary approval to start selling to patients on national soil. For that reason, it seems quite unlikely that the flower with a high THC content was shipped to this European country late last year – unless it was destined for another country.

unknown importer
Fotmer Executive Director Jordan Lewi previously admitted to shipping “just over a metric ton of THC-rich dried flower to an EU country”;

However, Vera Tochetti, the company's Marketing Director, told MJBizDaily in February that Fotmer could not reveal the name of the buyer. Infarmed, the regulatory agency responsible for approving imports and exports of narcotics, also said that it would not identify the buyer: “The specific information requested is not public, falling within the scope of the activities of licensed companies”, the agency told
MJBizDaily.

Certified Portuguese cannabis producers could be the presumptive importers of the plant from Uruguay, as their licenses include import and export. But the importer could also have been, for example, a non-cannabis laboratory that needed the product for research purposes. However, it is unlikely that such a large amount was imported for this purpose. Only four companies in Portugal had a cannabis license at the time the importation took place, according to the Infarmed website. Three of the companies – Emmac Life Sciences, based in London (through its subsidiary Terra Verde), The Flowr Corp., of Toronto (through its subsidiary Holigen/RPK Biopharma) and Sabores Púrpura, of Coimbra, Portugal. Canadian producer Tilray did not confirm or deny to MJBizDaily whether or not he made the import: “For commercial reasons, Tilray does not provide details about who its suppliers are or about its activity.
commercial”, said Sarah Sheppard, Tilray's European consultant, in an email.

destination unknown
At the moment, the first medical cannabis products have not yet started to be marketed in Portugal, which suggests that the plant rich in THC may have been exported to Portugal, in order to be
re-exported to other countries. The only companies that have publicly announced commercial exports of
cannabis to date were: Tilray for Canndoc in Israel – 250 kilograms in January 2020 –
as part of a 2,5 metric ton strategic partnership agreement.

Emmac for the Bazelet Group in Israel – 400 kilograms in February 2020. Antonio Costanzo, Executive Director of Emmac, told MJBizDaily that the company “did not import any products into Portugal” and that the cannabis it exported to Israel was “cultivated and harvested on our property, Terra Verde”, in Portugal.

Uruguayan producer Fotmer does not have EU-GMP certification, according to the European Union's official EudraGMDP database, which is publicly available, which could limit the ability of the plant to be sold unprocessed to patients in countries such as Germany.
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This text was originally published by Alfredo Pascual in MJBizDaily, on May 21, 2020, and translated for CannaReporter by Raquel Ralha. An update with new data has been published the 3rd of June.

Featured Image taken from a video from the website of Canndoc Pharma.

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Alfredo Pascual

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  Uruguay sets new record in cannabis flower exports to Europe