CHINA will emerge as the cannabis cultivating super power producing flower for as little a 10 cents a gram, a leading producer believes.
Oliver Zugel, Executive Chairman and co-founder of Colombian producer Foliumed, elaborated on how he sees the cultivation industry developing.
“Hemp outdoor cultivation in the UK is a short-lived business with just one crop a year, in Colombia we can get up to five harvests a year but the Chinese will be beating us on price within a few years.
“Cultivating under lights is not sustainable, the carbon footprint of such operations is horrible, something like three per cent of all California’s electricity is taken by the cannabis industry.”
Colombia is one of the lowest-cost producers in the world with cannabis flowers being produced for around 50 cents per gram compared to $1.50 in Canada.
Mr Zugel believes a global glut of CBD will drive prices down and described the situation where CBD extract can be produced for $1.50 a gram and sold for $400 – in countries such as Germany – as unsustainable.
“There is no other business like this at the moment, it makes no sense.”
He then turned his fire on those in the industry making unsubstantiated medical claims
“Now ,CBD can cure hair loss, impotency then there are the beauty claims; the medical science needs to keep up, but these things are are not scientifically proven, and do no favours to the business.
Mr Zugel was speaking at the Cannabis Investor Forum in the City of London, last year.
