{"id":543590,"date":"2021-12-05T13:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=543590"},"modified":"2021-12-05T13:01:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T11:01:20","slug":"south-africa-cannabis-industry-could-create-25000-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/543590\/south-africa-cannabis-industry-could-create-25000-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa cannabis industry could create 25,000 jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The industrial cannabis\/hemp industry has immense growth potential in South Africa; and the continent as a whole, due to favourable climates, affordable land and relatively low labour costs, notes law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, due to the nature of the product, the prospective prosperity of the industry depends on a clear regulatory regime \u2013 the inner workings of which are still in the developmental phase, according to Andr\u00e9 de Lange, head of the Agriculture, Aquaculture & Fishing sector at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr (CDH), who recently facilitated a webinar entitled: \u2018A Pragmatic Approach to South Africa\u2019s Hemp Industry’.<\/p>\n

The webinar provided a snapshot of the Hemp regulatory landscape; presented by Shaad Vayej, an associate in CDH\u2019s Dispute Resolution practice, followed by an overview of the opportunities that the sector presents for the country, provided by industry stalwart and Hemporium founder, Tony Budden. Li\u00ebtte van Schalkwyk, an associate in CDH\u2019s Dispute Resolution practice, concluded the webinar by extracting important learnings from the industrial Cannabis industry in Lesotho.<\/p>\n

Vayej argued that; amongst other factors, South Africa’s track record of innovation in agriculture, relatively low blue and white-collar labour costs and increasingly transparent legal and compliance framework, makes for a low-cost, high-quality destination for domestic and export-orientated Cannabis activities.<\/p>\n

However, the transformative economic potential of the industry depends greatly on the development of integrated value chains with significant buy-in from existing domestic and international investors. Agro-processing businesses and secondary manufacturers are essential to this value chain \u2013 a reality taken into account in South Africa\u2019s Cannabis Master Plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cannabis Master Plan aims to provide a broad framework for the development and growth of the South African cannabis industry in order to contribute to economic development, job creation, inclusive participation, rural development, and poverty alleviation. In pragmatic terms, the State recognises that conservative estimates indicate that 25,000 jobs could be created across the various value chains,\u201d Vayej said.<\/p>\n

Hemp, being cannabis cultivated primarily for industrial purposes, has been declared an agricultural crop under the Plant Improvement Act 53 of 1976, a legal framework for import, export, cultivation, distribution, sale and research of hemp and hemp propagating material in South Africa for agricultural and industrial purposes.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development released Guidelines that facilitate hemp permit applications and mandate extensive record-keeping, annual reporting, notification and compliance with activity-specific permit conditions.<\/p>\n

Transparency and traceability remain the state\u2019s key concerns, which has invariably led to a number of legislative limits placed on Hemp production as well as a degree of bureaucracy \u2013 a potential pitfall faced by the local Cannabis industry.<\/p>\n

What is missing from the current regulatory framework, is an over-arching Act \u2013 a legal instrument that could potentially go a long way in catalysing the development of the country\u2019s fledgling industry.<\/p>\n

The latter sentiment was echoed by Tony Budden, whose portion of the webinar was dedicated to the opportunities that exist within the industry, as it negotiates its \u2018place in the sun\u2019 amongst South Africa\u2019s more developed agricultural sub-sectors.<\/p>\n

Budden said that a \u201csimple Act\u201d that enabled rather than controlled or curtailed the rapid growth of the industry was needed. In Budden\u2019s opinion, only when this piece of legislation comes to fruition, can South Africa realise the economic growth potential and the job creation that the industry can <\/em>and will <\/em>support.<\/p>\n

“The act will be our starting point. Regulations are more complex, but they can be changed and will evolve as the industry develops. The most important thing right now is for us to start somewhere because ultimately we are playing catch-up to the rest of the world,” said Budden.<\/p>\n

The key is not for industry stakeholders to focus too heavily on cultivation but to shift their focus to include the preparation of the raw material for consumption and invest in the manufacturing aspect of the industry.<\/p>\n

Van Schalkwyk agreed that the South African regulatory framework focuses too much on control and too little on enablement. This, for van Schalkwyk is a key lesson for the State, if it is to realise any success.<\/p>\n

“A one size fits all approach to the Act governing the industry will provide a workable, foundational model for strict and evolving regulations.\u201d Echoing the sentiments of Budden, she remarked that, \u201cthe Act doesn\u2019t have to be perfect \u2013 the State simply needs to put pen to paper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: New pension system on the cards for South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African legislation is missing an all-inclusive Act that will enable rather than curtail the industrial Cannabis industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":532402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1523,26],"class_list":["post-543590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-cliffe-dekker-hofmeyr","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543590"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544094,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543590\/revisions\/544094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}