Zimbabwe: The medical cannabis cultivation programme (finally) launched?

The Zimbabwean government has granted 57 licenses authorizing the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes. This announcement therefore marks the official launch of this program, began almost a year ago. Among the 57 licensees are both Zimbabwean and foreign companies. German, Swiss, and Canadian producers have invested there, though it is not known which ones.

Apply for a license costs 11,200 U.S. dollars, and then 46,000 if the contract is awarded. An unexpected windfall for a country that is desperately short of cash.

«Production has begun in Shamva, Mt. Hampden, Mazowe, Stappleford, Broomley, Bulawayo, Kadoma, and Harare. The companies own 100 % of their investments.», proudly announces the Zimbabwe Investment & Development Agency (ZIDA) in a press release.

The government is trying here to reassure the public and attract new investors. In fact, just a few months ago, the government planned to take an equity stake in every cannabis operation. That idea sent a (very) bad signal to foreign companies, especially Western ones. The government so he backtracked, and now leaves «100 % of their investments »to entrepreneurs.".

No exports in the past three years

If we take a closer look, this program seems to be going south. In fact, as early as 2019, Newsweed reported that the government had granted 37 licenses to produce medical cannabis in Zimbabwe. What has become of those licenses today? It’s hard to say. In any case, no cannabis exports have been recorded since then, reports the U.S. news agency Bloomberg.

The government’s goal of exporting $1.25 billion worth of cannabis in 2021 therefore seems a long way off. In fact, financial analysts have never taken this figure seriously, given that the country has been mired in an economic crisis for the past twenty years and plagued by corruption.

The country's only source of joy: the industrial hemp. «We managed to ship three metric tons of hemp to Switzerland.», says Dr. Zorodzai Maroveke. What makes this harvest unique is that it was produced at the Harare prison, the capital of Zimbabwe.