Portugal exported 5,438 kilograms (roughly 12,000 pounds) of medical cannabis in the first half of this year, according to the latest figures published by the country’s health authority, Infarmed.
That puts the Portuguese medical cannabis industry on pace to surpass last year’s record export figure of 9,271 kilograms.
However, export growth is slowing.
Portugal exported 4,850 kilograms of medical cannabis in 2020 and 5,694 in 2021, the figures shared by Infarmed show.
So far this year, the top destination for the Portuguese medical cannabis exports was Germany, which received 1,678 kilograms.
Poland was a close second, with 1,589 kilograms, while Australia received 955 kilograms.
Spain and Malta were fourth and fifth, respectively, with 600 kilograms and 106 kilograms.
Israel, which received 1,565 kilograms of cannabis in 2022, has not imported medical cannabis from Portugal so far this year.
Israel was the largest importer of medical cannabis from Portugal in 2020 and 2021.
It’s unclear why shipments to Israel completely dried up, but Portuguese exporters might be losing out to Canadian ones.
Israel imported 20,907 kilograms of dried cannabis from Canada in the fiscal year 2022-23, which ran from April 2022 through March 2023.
Canada is thought to be the largest exporter of medical marijuana flower in the world.
In the April 2022-March 2023 fiscal year, Canada’s exports of medical cannabis flower equaled 59,986 kilograms, a nearly 50% increase over the previous year.
