Hemp, medical cannabis, and how product moves into the EU.

7 October 2026

Source: Business of Cannabis — Portugal’s Regulator Defends Cannabis Crackdown as Export Permit Delays Fall (14 September 2026); CannaReporter — PTMC26: Infarmed acknowledges challenges and promises greater dialogue with the medicinal cannabis industry (17 September 2026); Infarmed — Canábis Medicinal – Evolução da Atividade – 2026, 1.º semestre (21 August 2026)

Portugal is issuing medical cannabis export certificates in a median of 12 days

Infarmed told PTMC26 in Lisbon that medical cannabis import and export certificates now issue in a median of 12 days. The export file is still large — 66,305 kg in the first half of 2026 — and operators in the room say the wait they live with has not caught up.

6 October 2026

Source: International CBC — Medical Cannabis Imports Increase In Spain (25 September 2026); Cannamonitor — Spain medical cannabis H1 2026

Spain is moving medical cannabis as a processing trade

AEMPS figures for the first half of 2026 show Spain taking in more medical cannabis than it shipped out. Most of that inbound volume is a processing file — Portugal in, and Germany, the UK and Poland still on the partner list.

14 September 2026

Source: European Commission — first CRCF methodologies for permanent carbon removals (3 February 2026); Tao Climate — A Milestone for Biochar Carbon Removal in the EU

The EU certified biochar carbon removal. Industrial hemp is a biomass file, not a credit slogan.

Brussels adopted the first CRCF methodologies for permanent CO₂ removals, including biochar. For hemp operators that is an offtake and classification job: feedstock, intended use, and a certification box that is not fibre, food, or medicine.

14 September 2026

Source: European Commission proposal COM(2025) 553 — hemp production and marketing

The EU is opening the whole hemp plant to farm-gate purchase

Brussels has proposed treating leaves, flowers and roots of industrial hemp as agricultural products — the same family as fibre and seed. For buyers and farms, that is a movement story, not a culture-war story.

14 September 2026

Source: CannaReporter — MG Health (Lesotho) and Canify: EU-GMP flower into Europe

Lesotho and South Africa: why our partner facilities belong on a European purchase order

Altitude, light, and pharmaceutical-grade sites — not a pitch deck. Southern African partner facilities already grow and process to the standard European buyers actually import.

14 September 2026

Source: Reuters — EU allows Lesotho’s MG Health to export cannabis flower for medicinal use

How medical cannabis and hemp actually get imported into the EU

Europe already buys African and other third-country flower. The import is not a mystery: GACP, EU-GMP, a licensed importer, narcotics paperwork, and a Qualified Person who will release the batch.

14 September 2026

Source: Department of Health — Review of Access to Cannabis for Medical Use

Ireland is reviewing how patients can access and purchase medical cannabis

The Department of Health has opened an evidence-based review of the Medical Cannabis Access Programme and ministerial licences. Medical cannabis here is a prescribed purchase path — and Dublin is asking whether that path should be wider.

15 October 2022

Cannabis in South Africa: Learning from a partially crippled industry

South Africa is a rich and multicultural country with a deeply rooted traditional and recreational landscape for cannabis. The ‘rainbow nation’ is dictated by corruption and poor decision-making, spurring a playground for lack of foundation and malpractice.