Uruguay finally authorizes long-overdue shipment of medical cannabis to Israel
According to the Uruguayan edition of El País, on Sept. 19th 2020 the company Fotmer Life Sciences received the authorization from the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) to export medical cannabis flowers to Israel. This is the largest export of medical cannabis with a high THC content that has ever been recorded in the world, according to Bruno Gaiero, Fotmer’s lawyer.
Specifically, 1,760 kilos of medical cannabis inflorescences are set to leave from Montevideo to Israel. This will translate into several million dollars, according to Gaiero. The almost two tons were waiting for the authorization of the MSP since December of last year. In these nine months, an intense back and forth went on between the portfolio and the company. In spite of the decrees signed by president Luis Lacalle Pou in August to enable the exports of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp, the authorization of the portfolio was continuatively withheld until ten days ago with no clear reasons.
These delays in the expedition of authorizations generated discomfort in the Chamber of Companies of Medicinal Cannabis of Uruguay. Its president, Marco Algorta, manifested that these bureaucratic delays are not common in this industry in other countries, which generates a loss of competitiveness.
The steps to follow are all oriented to making the shipment of the product concrete, to maintain the Israeli market open, to consolidate it and to be able to continue extending it, according to Fotmer Life Sciences The concretion of the export coincides with the meeting of President Lacalle Pou with Yoed Magen, Israeli ambassador in Uruguay and Paraguay.
