Elicier Hernandez, CEO of GreenBe Pharma, says the varieties proving themselves in Canada and the US are not making it to European licensed producers, and the reason is operational, not commercial.
"Genetics that are new to the market, not common in Europe, but already proven in Canada and the US, those are exactly what European operators are looking for," he says. "The problem is that introducing them legally is complex. The regulatory paths are not straightforward, and that is why the gap exists. New materials that perform well elsewhere simply do not make it here, and licensed producers end up growing the same varieties everyone else is growing."
Leveraging traditional ag expertise to serve cannabis
Phytosanitary requirements vary across European markets and change with some regularity. Plant material does not move freely across borders, and the documentation burden at each stage of import is substantial. The practical effect is that most licensed producers in Europe continue working from a narrow genetic pool, competing on execution rather than variety differentiation, while markets like Canada and the US have moved further ahead on terpene profiles, flower structure, and cannabinoid content.
"We come from a large traditional agricultural background. We are part of a very large group that has been dealing with plant material for decades," Elicier says. "We know how to do this within regulations. And it is not only about legal paperwork. Phytosanitary requirements are a major part of it. When you have been running nursery operations at millions of units per year, you develop the infrastructure and the knowledge to move plant material properly." In other words, GreenBe has all the legal pathways proven and established to bring non-European genetics into the EU market.
GreenBe is part of an agricultural group that distributes millions of certified plants annually across species and markets. That infrastructure, applied to cannabis, means the company has existing import protocols, established regulatory relationships, and operational experience with phytosanitary compliance at a scale most cannabis-specific operators have not built. Its nursery runs under HLVd-free certification with full traceability from mother plant to distribution.
The Mother Renewal Programme is built on top of that infrastructure. It is aimed at two audiences: breeders and genetics holders outside Europe with varieties that have proven commercial performance in more mature markets, and licensed producers in Europe who want access to those varieties without having to navigate import compliance on their own.
For more information:
GreenBe Pharma
www.greenbepharma.com
