To regulate cannabis cultivation, the agribusiness needs to buy into the idea

By Rafael Arcuri

Brazil already has a thriving cannabis market, moving millions of reais and poised to grow, but still does not allow cultivation. The prohibition of cultivation creates a distortion in the domestic market, which cannot vertically integrate its industry and needs to import its inputs - creating a problematic dependency, as seen during the pandemic. And this scenario is unlikely to change until agribusiness is convinced that cannabis is a commodity.

Currently, it is possible to buy medicinal cannabis at pharmacies or from a foreign supplier - moving R$ 130 million per year.

Associations serve thousands of people with low-cost oils. Individual cultivation, carried out through judicial decisions, is becoming increasingly common.

The advances in regulation are undeniable, and the country is experiencing a completely different scenario from what it was a few years ago.

Despite this, cultivation on national territory faces significant resistance. In the National Congress, it is criticized by progressives and conservatives, who see problems in PL 399/2015 - the closest to being approved. Conservatives reject the idea of planting on national territory, fearing a public health crisis. Progressives, on the other hand, criticize the restrictions imposed on cultivation.

This deadlock exists only because the largest national caucus, and the most organized, has not yet moved to approve cultivation. Brazilian agribusiness has not yet bought into the idea that planting cannabis is a good business.

Unlike what happened in the US, Brazil has not yet had a set of factors that would mobilize agribusiness. There, the articulation that led to the approval of the 2018 Farm Bill, legalizing hemp, was under strong pressure from the state of Kentucky, which was losing money due to the decline in tobacco consumption - its cash crop. In addition, the US was facing a tariff war with China, causing even more losses.

The legalization of hemp was seen as a victory for Trump, who minimized the losses from Chinese tariffs, as well as for farmers, who had a new and lucrative commodity - the fifth largest crop in the US, representing US $6.2 billion.

Although there is no direct dependency between American and Brazilian regulation, it is clear that our agribusiness is not currently in the most susceptible moment to bear the political risks of cultivation. In 2021, national agribusiness set a record, with exports of US $102.4 billion.

In 2020, the President of the Parliamentary Front for Agribusiness (FPA), Alceu Moreira, stated that if cannabis