Leading the way in mass production of marijuana, Colombia is posited to be the export powerhouse it’s meant to be.
Colombia has long held a position that makes them an export powerhouse for numerous commodities and goods. With somewhat recent changes in cannabis laws and newly formed trade deals, Colombia is ready to take on the cannabis industry and supply nearly half of the global demand.
Slowly but surely the Colombian government has made access to cannabis consumption available to its people and for manufacturing by working together with other countries and expediting global legalization.
Colombian Trade Agreements
“The Colombian Government has bi- and multilateral trade agreements with the United States and Canada, the European Union, the Pacific Alliance (Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru), South Korea, and a pending agreement with Panama. Additionally, Colombia is negotiating a Post-Brexit trade deal with the UK.
The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) enacted in May of 2012 eliminated import tariffs on 80 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to Colombia. It also included stronger legal stability for U.S. investors, expanded access to service markets, better intellectual property rights protection, market access for remanufactured goods, and improved dispute settlement procedures, according to Trade.gov.
The COVID-19 Pandemic had an effect on the Colombian market though, which is price-sensitive. With costs determining most decisions,” One World Pharma reports. And costs everywhere are going up and up. But these trade deals and a little healthy competition will keep prices manageable.
Growing in a Growing Market
“One World Pharma, one of 160 licensed companies operating in Colombia, have planted roots there due to the perfect growing conditions, affordability, and established trade agreements where cannabis is regulated” the company states on its website.
“Unlike other global cannabis companies though, OWP has partnered with the indigenous people of the Miska community in Colombia in a Certified Fair Trade agreement. OWP invests in the Misaks future by providing the hemp seeds for farmers to grow a harvest that OWP later purchases. Beyond this, OWP has also issued shares of its company to the tribespeople. When OWP succeeds, so do the indigenous people of Colombia. The Fair Trade agreement ensures the Misaks can maintain a sustainable financial infrastructure.”
This deep investment in the indigenous community guarantees OWP’s commitment to not just the people of Colombia, but in the commodity itself. Industrialized hemp is changing the world and anyone with a sense of up from down will see that it’s the bandwagon to be on.
Business as Usual
Rodrigo Arcila, president of the Colombian Cannabis Association, told Cannabis Business Times, “Colombia will be a world leader in cannabis in a few years. Investors have poured about $600 million US in medical cannabis, including farms and laboratories of by-products in about three years.”
The plant itself is a commodity valuable enough to rake in millions of dollars in profits but compound that wealth with that of the peripheral businesses that benefit from joining the party and hemp manufacturing looks like it’s about to knock Big Oil and Big Pharma off their pedestals.
The amount of global economic good created by legalizing the cultivation of cannabis and the production of hemp-based goods through jobs, taxation and eliminating the black market is infinite. All Colombia has to do now is allow for the cannabis plant to be exported for more than just scientific research.
If there’s one thing Colombia has done, it’s made a name for itself in the coffee industry, and soon the country will corner the market on wake ‘n’ bake if things continue to develop as they have. “Like in coffee, we hope Colombia will be distinguished as a world potential in production of very high-quality medical cannabis,” Arcila says.
