Opinion – Cannabis Inc.: Paraguay ends Cannabis Day at the UN

Paraguay is the most talked about success story in the sector and that’s why it took on the task of closing the Regenerabis Cannabis Live, held this past Thursday (5th), at the UN. The country managed to assemble and put into practice a model of the cannabis 360 degrees, whose chain goes from the plantation to the finished product. And that in just under three years.

It seems that very soon it will be the biggest producer of mayonnaise, mustard, beauty creams and many other products made with derivatives of cannabis from Latin America – none of which have psychoactive substances.

“Paraguay did what Uruguay couldn’t, even though it was ahead of everyone else,” says Alex Lucena, innovation director at The Green Hub. “Profitability lies in the industrialization of products.”

Paraguay started investing in the sector in 2019. To solve the problem of hunger and fight illegal planting – today the country is one of the largest illegal marijuana producers in the world – the government started distributing seeds to small farmers and indigenous people, with the guarantee of the purchase of the harvest. “We imported seeds from all over the world to discover the ones that would best suit Paraguayan soil,” said Minister of Agriculture Moises Santiago Bertoni, who opened the last panel.

THE cannabis it was treated as an agricultural commodity and as such received investments in research and technology development to achieve the best in productivity. But so that the work could take off, the country set up a commission with the Mysteries of Agriculture, Technology and Industry, in addition to the Anti-Drug Secretariat and the Health Service.

Uruguay was the first country to approve the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis. “Business grew and we managed to be the first country in Latin America to sell products with products derived from the plant”, said Marcelo Demp, president of the Industrial Chamber of Hemp in Paraguay, who presented the second panel. In the presentation material, scenes of production and harvesting and manufacturing organized in a well-organized industrial chain caught the audience’s attention. “We are going to replicate the business model of cannabis in Costa Rica,” said Demp. This could be the beginning of a cooperation that could extend throughout Latin America.

For six years, the country has invested in a partnership with a Canadian company, in the development of biodegradable, ecological and compostable plastic made from the stem of the cannabis. “With this step, we close the social cycle, which goes from the eradication of extreme poverty to the full use of the plant.”