Israel plans to capitalize on its experience in medicinal cannabis to best Morocco in the European market, and find new markets, stated Harry Clynch in an article published at Al-Monitor on Sunday
Israel’s Health Ministry announced in August that it has plans to liberalize its laws on the use of medical cannabis. This action will place Israel in direct competition with Morocco for access to the European medical cannabis market.
Morocco, the world’s second-largest cannabis producer after Afghanistan, has also taken steps in the past two years to promote its medical cannabis to the European market.
In 2021, the kingdom passed a law authorizing the production of cannabis for medical, cosmetic, and industrial purposes, and the first 10 permits were issued in October of 2022.
But so far, legal production in Morocco remains largely hampered by the proliferation of black-market sales.
The pharmaceutical market in Morocco is difficult to break into, as products are subject to strict regulation and costly production infrastructure.
Additionally, according to a Jerusalem-based medical cannabis business expert Daniel Levinson, Israeli regulations are closer to the European ones, which offers the country a competitive advantage over Moroccan producers.
These administrative similarities that Europe shares with Israel may allow Israeli enterprises to sell to the continent with less difficulty than their Moroccan counterparts, who are “only just beginning to establish medical quality standards.”
Morocco has the potential to become a prominent participant in global cannabis markets, but standards must be substantially improved, a founder of a medical cannabis firm in Chefchaouen told Al-Monitor anonymously.
“Sixty thousand hectares in Morocco are used to produce illegal cannabis. This year, about 200 hectares will be used for legal production. Of course, this is only the first year, but it is very difficult to challenge the mentality of those people who have worked all this time with illegal cannabis” he added.
He continued by saying that many Moroccan companies have signed contracts with Spanish, French, English, Canadian counterparts, which means that Moroccan cannabis is considered a high-quality product by these investors. Morocco has “a huge amount of space in which to grow cannabis and lots of experience with the product.”
Morocco has the potential to become a major participant in global cannabis markets but faces substantial challenges in the attitudes of both government officials and illicit producers.