Canaveda Cannabis Institute – Nepal’s first sustainable production and research center dedicated to the hemp plant
“A large part of the population is really poor, but there is a lot of untapped potential here,” says Leon when he explains via video call what he and his business partners want to achieve in Nepal.
“Hemp can save the world,” says the native Austrian and uses his phone to film the huge hemp plants that naturally grow in abundance here and, when it comes to Canaveda, are just waiting to be industrialized.
Leon originally came to Asia about three years ago with the aim of developing a versatile Ayurvedic CBD oil. Hemp has an important meaning in Ayurvedic nutrition and herbal medicine and is often an important component of many recipes. He finally came to Nepal via India and Sri Lanka, where the hemp plant is culturally firmly rooted. The further processing of hemp fibers into textiles gave rise to the idea for a central production, education and research location.
With the Canaveda Cannabis Institute, Leon Thomas Soede and his two business partners Pratik Karki and Himal Banjade want to create sustainable industrialization in Nepal with the help of the countless, partly unused, hemp plants. The establishment of a functioning cannabis industry would ultimately also benefit a large part of the population and could boost the country’s ailing economy. With the help of various projects and products, the country between India and Tibet is to become the Switzerland of Asia within the next five years.
