China’s Global Times reports…
Huaren Pharmaceutical, based in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, said Wednesday that it has teamed up with a biotechnology company in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province to produce industrial cannabis in greenhouses, which could be the first such base in China for cannabis cultivation.
Huaren said the Yunnan company will support it in terms of technology to ensure the joint venture can obtain all the necessary licenses, but it warned that there are still uncertainties about whether the JV can be approved.
The company is not alone.
In January, Shanghai Shunho New Materials Technology Co said its subsidiary had been approved by a branch of the local public security bureau in Qujing, Yunnan Province to plant industrial cannabis, kicking off a frenzy in the business among listed companies.
In February, three subsidiaries of Conba Group, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in East China’s Zhejiang Province, obtained a license to grow industrial cannabis on 24,000 mu (97.13 square kilometers) of land in Yunnan Province.
China implements strict access management for cannabis in the planting and processing industry. Only Yunnan and Northeast China’s Heilongjiang provinces are allowed to have legal industrial cannabis cultivation and processing businesses.
China has strict management procedures for the production, planting, storage and transportation of industrial cannabis and it is strictly controlled by the relevant departments, Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said in March.
He said China will take tougher measures to regulate industrial cannabis, noting that cannabis has been legalized in many countries.
The commission said last month it is requiring anti-drug authorities to tighten approval of permits for industrial cannabis cultivation.
The regulator said industrial cannabis is only to be used in fabric and as seeds, and it has never been approved for medical and food use.
