Portugal: Herdade das Barrocas obtains EU-GMP certification

Herdade das Barrocas announced the completion of yet another stage in the company's journey, with the attribution of EU-GMP certification in cannabis operations. The company, which has already received the GMP certification from Infarmed, has in its long-term plans the submission of an ACM – Marketing Authorization.

Sociedade Agrícola Monte das Barrocas, which has its headquarters in Estremoz and was already licensed by Infarmed to grow cannabis for medicinal purposes, announced obtaining good manufacturing practice (GMP) certification for its medical cannabis-related operations — this despite not yet appearing on the portal EudraGMP.

In clarification to CannaReporter, the company assumes that it has also raised these issues and that the failure is due to delays resulting from updates on the platform itself (which brings together all the certificates of Good Manufacturing Practices in Europe). However, the company confirms that it has already received certification from Infarmed.

International markets with Portugal in sight

Telmo Costa, Director of Product Development at Herdade das Barrocas, told Cannareporter that the company is in a continuous production phase and that “in the short term and due to the attractiveness of international markets, the focus is on growing flowers of excellent quality and supporting our international partners”. Asked about the possibility of producing for the national market, Costa assumed that he would not rule out the option of “submitting an ACM for dry flower”, but that, for now, it is a long-term option.

Demanding and challenging environment

The perfect storm of recent years, where the pandemic and war translate into price increases, has also had an impact on the cannabis industry. This factor adds up, according to Telmo Costa, to the challenges arising from regulatory matters: “The scenario in which we find ourselves is characterized by a significant increase in production costs, especially in a high-tech unit such as Herdade das Barrocas”. These generalized increases in the company's operating costs make the entire task of operational planning more demanding, he explained, as "it is necessary to maximize efficiency, without deteriorating economic and environmental sustainability".

Telmo Costa also defended that one way of mitigating the impact is through the photovoltaic plant that the company has and which fills part of the daily energy consumption, without losing sight of the primary objective of “preserving the environmental integrity of the production space ”. However, it is in terms of regulatory matters that the director claims to find more challenges, "since each country of destination has its requirements and response times", he concludes.