Medicinal cannabis: NZ legislation leads East Coast company to export strains overseas

Rua Bioscience has moved away from the local market and signed supply and distribution deals with overseas customers. Photo / 123rf

By RNZ

A medicinal cannabis company says illogical legislation has stopped it from supplying products for New Zealand patients and it is exporting its East Coast strains around the world instead.

The Government’s Medicinal Cannabis Scheme came into effect in April 2020, after the failed national cannabis referendum, making it easier for patients to access medicinal marijuana - but products still come at a high cost for patients, as prescriptions are not subsidised by Pharmac.

Ruatōria-based growing operation Rua Bioscience has pivoted since it started in 2017, moving away from the local market and signing supply and distribution deals with customers in Germany, Australia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The company’s cannabis cultivation consultant Porourangi Tawhiwhirangi said it was sad the current regulations made it so hard for growers and producers to supply the local medicinal cannabis market, most of which is imported.

“The industry has been created, but it doesn’t serve businesses that want to try to support New Zealand,” Tawhiwhirangi said.

“Rua Bioscience stopped throwing our investors’ money into that hole because we’re just losing it, playing this New Zealand game, and now we do breeding at our Ruatōria facility.”

Tawhiwhirangi said ex-illicit growers, like himself, were working on cloning and testing up to 500 different strains at the large facility.

“It’s a new programme that Rua’s gone down,” he said.

“We’re sending our genetics across the world for another grower to grow, and then provide a product to the German market or European market with a Rua brand on it.

“So unfortunately, it’s the way we have to play it because of the regulations in New Zealand, which is really dumb.”

Tawhiwhirangi said while the future of the business looks different than first expected, it’s got a bright future ahead - with growers at the helm.

“Within my team - there’s only five of us here, but they know how to grow. They lost the passion early on [in the business], but after the restructure, that mana has been given back to them.

“Rua’s done a big turn and [moved] the growers from being at the bottom of the hierarchy right up to the top, where all the conversations have been made. So it’s a beautiful thing.”

The supply deals helped push Rua Biosciences’ total revenue and income up from $646,000 in 2022 to $6.5 million in the year to June 2023.

- RNZ