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

On 10 September 2026, at the PTMC26 conference in Lisbon, Portugal’s medicines regulator put a number on the certificate file. Vasco Bettencourt, director of the licensing unit in Infarmed’s inspection and licensing directorate, said import and export certificates for medical cannabis are now issued in a median of 12 days on the new national platform, with further reductions expected. He was defending a year of tightened supervision — traceability, waste management, and the qualification of customers and suppliers — that followed the forged-certificate case known as Erva Daninha. The problems, he said, were paperwork and partner checks, not the product.

A new national reporting platform and a quarterly reporting model were approved in June 2026. The point of both is production data a buyer can audit. Infarmed has held more than 14 meetings with licensed companies since June to put the requirements in place. Suspension, revocation and non-renewal, the regulator said, are legal instruments for non-compliance. They are not the objective.

What the half-year export file shows

Infarmed’s own activity report, published on 21 August 2026, puts medical cannabis exports at 79,883 kg in 2025 and 66,305 kg in the first half of 2026. In that half-year the largest destinations were Germany at 37,442 kg, Spain at 11,386 kg, Denmark at 8,968 kg, the United Kingdom at 4,093 kg and Poland at 3,215 kg. At 2 June 2026 the same report counted 43 authorised legal entities, 27 valid cultivation authorisations and 38 import and export authorisations.

It is still a medicines file. Narcotics permits, EU-GMP, a licensed importer and a batch certificate of analysis sit on every consignment. Industrial hemp does not travel on this paperwork.

What operators in the room still report

Operators in the room put a different number on the same certificates. They said real-world waits are still two to three months, set against about 28 hours cited for Switzerland. Business of Cannabis reported the exchange: Bettencourt’s figure was the new platform; the floor’s figure was the queue companies say they still sit in. Both numbers stay on the file.

Some supply chains have already moved. Business of Cannabis reported Canadian flower exports to Portugal down 86.6% from the April 2025 peak, with volume rerouted directly to Germany. Portuguese export totals are still climbing on Infarmed’s own figures. Whether faster certificates and a quarterly reporting file are enough to hold that processing and export work in Portugal is the open question.

Where Rehemption sits

The positive read for a trade partner is practical. Europe’s largest medical cannabis exporter is rebuilding its permit and traceability system. Faster certificates, and production data a buyer can audit, make Portugal a more reliable EU-GMP processing and export door — if the median is what the consignment actually waits.

Rehemption’s job on that door is the match. If the product is medical flower or an extract a licensed buyer can lawfully receive, we write the specification, the offtake and the movement. If it is industrial hemp, it stays on the agricultural file. Portugal’s certificate times say the medicines export door is being rebuilt. They do not put a hemp crop on that file.