Legal Cannabis: Could Ecuador become the Marijuana Capital of the World?

In Tabacundo, a town in northern Ecuador known as the ‘rose capital of the world’, the first legal and formal cannabis cultivation in the South American country is being raised. What is not known is that this project could make the Andean country the largest exporter of cannabis, but does this mean that it could become the world capital of marijuana?

In the middle of large tracts of land dedicated to the planting of flowers is the cultivation of CannAndes, a company that receives that name referring to cannabis from the Andes, which was born within the Boutique Flower’s floriculture, where for now, it occupies one hectare of the extensive plantation, of the nine that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock authorized the company.

«This is the first time that cannabis has been planted in Ecuador, like this, legally. Here you can already see cannabis plantations in commercial quantities», says Klaus Graetzer, president of CannAndes, and who makes up the company together with Felipe Norton and Alfredo López, in an interview with RT.

In the tour of the property you can see the planting area, another smaller space that is the propagation greenhouse – where the plants begin their journey, which are planted by seeds and cuttings -, a place for drying the plants, another one for storage at low temperatures, a laboratory for extraction and study of the plants and the offices of the firm.

In addition to the nine hectares that can be used in Tabacundo for cannabis cultivation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock approved 45 more for CannAndes in two other properties, located in different parts of Ecuador, describes RT journalist Edgar Romero.

Cannabis below 1% THC

Graetzer points out that he and his partners are pioneers in this business in the country, since they began to work on the initiative, doing the respective studies, long before the Ecuadorian legislation favored them. In August 2019 they were granted the registration as a seed importer.

In December 2019, the National Assembly approved the decriminalization of non-psychoactive cannabis in the country, which is what allowed it to be cultivated, by establishing in article 127 of the Organic Law Reforming the Comprehensive Organic Penal Code: «Non-psychoactive cannabis or hemp, understood as the cannabis plant and any part of said plant, whose delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content is less than 1% in dry weight, is excluded from the listed substances subject to control, whose regulation is the competence of the National Agrarian Authority».

Later, in October 2020, the Ministerial Agreement 109 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock was announced, which established the «regulations for importing, sowing, cultivating, harvesting, post-harvesting, storage, transportation, processing, marketing and export. of non-psychoactive cannabis or hemp and hemp for industrial use».

In this same regulation, the cannabis plant was classified into «non-psychoactive genetics plants» and «psychoactive genetics plants». The first are those that contain less than 1% THC of their dry weight and the second have a percentage equal to or greater than 1% of THC, which would already be marijuana, considered illegal in the country and its cultivation constitutes a criminal offense.

CannAndes relied on these regulations to establish the company and, as established by law, its cultivation must be below 1% THC; a matter that is constantly monitored by Stalin Suntaxi, who is in charge of the laboratory they have on the same farm in Tabacundo.

Graetzer explains that in the seed of his crops predominates cannabidiol (CBD)  and has very little THC, both are cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant and stand out for their therapeutic qualities. The difference is that the first, it does not have psychoactive effects and the second does.

The company already has the licenses issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to work in this industry, which are: for the import and sale of seeds; for the production and sale of seeds and cuttings; for the production of non-psychoactive cannabis and industrial hemp; for plant breeding and genebanks; for production and processing of derivatives; and for marketing and export.

Although they are the pioneers, they are not the only ones. According to Graetzer there are already more than 40 companies in Ecuador trying to embark on the business; however, he assures that none of them reaches the level that they have advanced.

«Many companies are entering the industry right now. They are just starting out. They are just establishing themselves, obtaining permits, seeing the seeds, so it will take them one or two years to stabilize and reach the point that we are now», he said.

The advantages of the country

«The moment Ecuador enters into this industry, as a country, it will ‘break the board’, because it has the potential to dominate it in a very short time», emphasized Graetzer.

He mentions that Ecuador basically has two advantages over other countries that already have an established cannabis industry, such as Uruguay or Canada, which are the climate and the experience as one of the best rose producers in the world.

On the climate and geographical conditions, the CannAndes head explains that of the 13 countries that are crossed by the equatorial line, Ecuador is the only one that is «in a part of a mountain range (the Andes) where it is closer to the sun”, which benefits crops because it favors photosynthesis. They even highlight the benefits of the soil of Tabacundo, which is rich in nutrients, being volcanic, due to the fact that the Cayambe volcano is just a few kilometers away.

As for the experience as a floricultural country, this allows it to «do something that it already knows how to do» and more so when considering that the cultivation of cannabis is easier than that of roses.

«I do not see how Ecuador does not completely dominate the world of cannabis in the next five years», says Graetzer.

Cannabis-based products

CannAndes’ goal is to sell the raw material and also its own cannabis-based products. For the development of these is Nina Tapia, who also makes up the team.

She mentions that cannabis functions as a «regulating axis of the body’s physiological and pathological processes». Then – she adds – “you can be taking it to improve sleep, but you are also improving blood sugar levels and without realizing it, it begins to circulate better […] it regulates your appetite and then you lose weight because your metabolism accelerates».

Tapia indicates that, so far, 18 products have been developed, including a cosmetic line, which includes shampoo, conditioner, soap, body oil, deodorant, disinfectant gel, moisturizer, among others.

«If you put cannabis on your skin, you can treat everything from dermatological conditions such as psoriasis, dermatitis, acne, to having a brighter and healthier skin and thereby preventing melanomas», indicated Tapia.

She also commented that they are «working on a line of groceries», which includes chocolates, ‘alfajores’, gummies, tea, beers, coffee, aromatic waters, among others. They have also developed food supplement droppers.

The products are not yet for sale, since they must have the registration issued by the National Agency for Regulation, Control and Sanitary Surveillance (ARCSA).

In the future, they also hope to take advantage of the plant’s stem, whose fiber, Graetzer says, can be used, for example, to make cloth. «We are saving all these stems and we have an alliance with some universities so that they begin to develop the industry», she said, while noting that biofuels and bioplastics can also be obtained from hemp.

CannAndes’ plan is to open a store in Quito, so that people know ‘in situ’ the benefits of CBD, in order to end the stigmatization of the cannabis plant, whose illegality barely dates back to the first decades of the 20th century .