Costa Rica has opened its first facility dedicated to manufacturing finished medical marijuana products, allowing locally grown cannabis to be processed into medicines inside the country rather than exported solely as raw material.
Vantage Point Global inaugurated the facility in El Guarco, Cartago, on August 28. The laboratory will manufacture cannabis concentrates, oils, syrups and tablets intended for both the Costa Rican market and exports to countries including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The company operates its Costa Rican cannabis business under the Hybrida Farms name. Until now, its operations have focused largely on cultivation and exporting cannabis to overseas laboratories for further processing. The new facility gives the company the ability to move from cultivation through processing and production of finished pharmaceutical products within Costa Rica.
“This laboratory allows us to close a cycle,” Vantage Point Global General Manager Jorge Calderón said at the inauguration, explaining that the company can now cultivate, process and bring a finished product to market.
The expansion could also significantly increase employment at the company’s Cartago operation. Calderón said about 85 people currently work in one of its production areas, while the company expects its workforce could eventually reach approximately 420 as additional production areas, laboratory operations and distribution activities are developed.
Domestic sales, however, continue to face regulatory obstacles. Costa Rica approved Law 10,113 in 2022, legalizing and regulating marijuana and its derivatives for medical and therapeutic purposes while also authorizing industrial and food uses of hemp. The law permits the production, industrialization and commercialization of marijuana for medical purposes.
Calderón said gaps in the country’s regulatory framework continue to make registering finished marijuana medicines for domestic sale difficult, even though the products can be manufactured for export.
The facility’s opening follows another milestone for Costa Rica’s emerging medical marijuana industry. On March 13, Hybrida Farms completed what the company said was the country’s first export of pharmaceutical-grade medical marijuana to the European Union. The shipment consisted of cannabis produced under Good Agricultural and Collection Practices standards and was carried out under Costa Rica’s medical marijuana law and European import requirements.
