Clever Leaves to Take Advantage of the Approval to Export Medical Cannabis Flower from Colombia - Seite 2

Having shipped cannabis products to over 15 countries in five continents, Clever Leaves has a strong network of partners globally, who will benefit from its broader flower offering. Clever Leaves will leverage its position as a trusted B2B partner to develop and produce high quality and innovative products for medical cannabis patients around the world.

This change in regulation, allowing for the export of dried flower, will catalyze the continued development of the Colombian medical cannabis industry by eliminating the restriction that blocked access to 50% of the global medical cannabis market. In addition, the decree includes features that will help Clever Leaves to drive additional growth, including streamlined processes in quota management systems, which enable efficiencies and improve Clever Leaves’ ability to serve clients faster. The bill also includes access to medical cannabis for patients in Colombia.

During the visit to Clever Leaves’ facilities, President Duque, who was accompanied by several of his ministers, regional and local authorities, highlighted the expected impact of this to the country: “This new decree represents an important milestone for Colombia, enabling us to compete in international markets. Furthermore, the decree raises the standards of our products and adds significant value, particularly in the medicinal sector. Clever Leaves has served as a benchmark for the Colombian cannabis industry, generating 17 employments per hectare at its cultivation facility. I encourage our government representatives across various entities to unite and further support the development of the industry.”

Kyle Detwiler, CEO at Clever Leaves said: “The change in policy by the Colombian government could double our addressable market from Colombia, a region where Clever Leaves has made a substantial capacity investment but where we have been limited in only selling processed or extracted products up to this point in time. Nevertheless, since 2016, we have been building the capabilities required to produce a pharmaceutical-grade product.

“This regulatory evolution will enable us to better serve our customers around the world by capitalizing on Latin America’s only EU GMP certified cannabis operation, which, much to many peoples’ surprise, already includes EU GMP certified dry flower production. In hopeful anticipation of this moment, our team has spent the past several years developing commercial relationships, market insights and supply partnerships globally, and this catalyst will hopefully unlock significant potential of our gradually expanding customer base. Through our Portuguese dry flower production facility, we have learned and successfully navigated the different challenges facing a flower operation, including quality requirements, GACP and EU GMP certifications, sterility protocols, import/export logistics of psychoactive product, and cannabinoid potency requirements, many of which are different from that of processed or extracted products. We hope these lessons and relationships allow Clever Leaves to capitalize on Colombia’s new cannabis regulations.”