Lithuania authorizes the production and sale of CBD hemp

In Lithuania, hemp is a heritage culture. It can be used to make butter, season dishes or bed linen. This Baltic country wants to use it to become a CBD giant. Visit Seimas, the local parliament, has just adopted a series of amendments to legalize the cultivation and sale of hemp derivatives, provided that these contain less than 0.2 % THC when the plant is in the ground.

Until now, cannabidiol has been banned on Lithuanian soil. «Today, we export 100 % of our crop. This makes the product more expensive, given the cost of transport».», laments Hempspot's CEO, quoted in Hemp Today. Lithuanian CBD hemp landed in France, alongside Chinese and American crops.

From now on, the 2.7 million inhabitants will be able to buy hemp produced in their own country. «We are one of the largest hemp producers in the European Union. Now we can not only export our production, but also produce CBD and create value-added jobs in Lithuania!», rejoices parliamentarian Mykolas Majauskas, a member of the majority.

100 million euros per year

Lithuania grows 5,000 hectares of hemp. If the country were as big as France, it would produce three times as much as we do. Europe's leading producer of cannabis sativa L. Thanks to this new law, the Lithuanian CBD market could reach 100 million euros a year, according to the law's promoters. This would correspond to 10 % of the country's agricultural wealth.

This new windfall would also enable Lithuanian hemp production to take off again. It has fallen by 42 % since 2019. Now that farmers will be able to extract all parts of the plant, this could encourage them to grow hemp.