Cannabis Market in Portugal – Business Plan Templates Europe

Population (m)	10.3
GDP (€b)	184.9
Total Healthcare Expenditure (€b)	16.6
Total Beauty & Well being Expenditure (€b)	1.28
Alcohol Consumption (Litres Per Capita Per Year)	12.3
Prevalence of Tobacco Users (%)	22.7
Number of Cannabis Users (m)	0.2

Portugal decriminalized cannabis possession in 2001, but it later lagged behind internationally in legalising cannabis for medical purposes.

Cannabis Legalization in Portugal

Cannabis for medical use was approved in the Portuguese parliament on 15 June 2018, and Decree No. 8 was published in the official gazette on 15 January 2019 creating new legislation governing the cultivation, extraction, commercial preparation, local distribution, import and export, transit and sale of cannabis.

Infarmed have provided a list of conditions qualifying for medical cannabis, given that all conventional treatment methods have been unsuccessful:

Spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injuries.
Nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy, radiotherapy and combined HIV therapy and hepatitis C medication.
Appetite stimulation in palliative care of the patient undergoing oncological or AIDS treatment.
Chronic pain associated with oncological or nervous system conditions such as neuropathic pain caused by nerve damage, phantom limb pain, trigeminal neuralgia, or after herpes zoster infection.
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome.
Epilepsy and treatment of severe seizure disorders in childhood such as the Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes.
Therapeutically resistant glaucoma.

Cannabis Market in Portugal: Stats and Perspectives

Tilray was awarded a license to cultivate, import and export bulk medical cannabis in July 2017 by the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products. “The 60-acre campus includes a 65,000-square-foot outdoor cultivation plot, which was harvested in the fall of 2018, a 108,000-square-foot greenhouse with a first harvest completed in February 2019, and a 66,000-square-foot manufacturing facility with an expected completion date in the early part of the second quarter of 2019,” the filing stated.

Aurora Cannabis Inc, based in Edmonton, Alberta, on February 21, 2019, has signed an agreement to acquire a 51% ownership stake in Gaia Pharma, a Portuguese-based company with plans to develop a local facility to produce medical cannabis and cannabis-derivative products. The first phase of the facility is expected to have a production capacity of approximately 2,000 kg per annum, increasing to 4,000 kg per annum upon completion of the second phase.

Holigen, a Portuguese company, is in the final stages of obtaining a license. The license will permit it to produce more than 500,000 kilograms per year on a 72ha plot in the Alentejo region. It is investing about €40 million in the project and sold a 19.8% stake to the Canadian firm Flowr.

In June 2021, during a Parliamentary debate two political parties in Portugal each presented proposals (the Left Bloc party’s Bill 859 and the Liberal Initiative party’s Bill 862) for legalization of cultivation, production, distribution, and consumption of adult-use cannabis.

In 2023, there were 42 companies in Portugal with Infarmed IP licenses for activities related to medicinal cannabis, 8 more than in 2022, an increase of 23.5%.

Currently, 24 companies have licenses to cultivate, 15 to manufacture, 12 to distribute and 32 to import and export. 17 are already EU-GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certified.

Data provided by Infarmed shows that Portugal exported 4,850 kg of medicinal cannabis in 2020, 5,694 kg in 2021, and 9,271 kg in 2022. In the first half of this year, Portugal exported 5,438 kg of medical cannabis, including 1,678 kg to Germany, 1,589 kg to Poland, 955 kg to Australia and 600 kg to Spain.

Portugal Cannabis Market Infographics

Cannabis Cultivation Business Plan Sample, Portugal

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