The demand for medicinal cannabis from Europe and Australia has led a South African producer to sell all of its stock for next year in advance.
SafriCanna is a South African based company that supplies the international market. They have signed sale deals with Germany and Australia.
The company began building their facilities in Pretoria in 2019 and shipped their first batch in June.
Part of their success is that SafriCanna have been able to meet the conditions on the European Union good-manufacturing-practice standards which are notoriously strict. This has allowed them to export to one of the biggest cannabis markets.
They now aim to increase their production fivefold by 2024 in order to meet demand. Currently they are producing 5000 kilograms of cannabis but are aiming to increase this to 25,000 kilograms. The increase in production will cost SafriCanna $40 million.
The South African cannabis industry is anticipated to be worth $1.6 billion by 2023. The global market value of the industry was approximately $26.1 billion in 2021.
Private growing of cannabis is legal in South Africa for personal consumption of adults. Other nations in Africa such as Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana have legalised cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes.
