Costa Rica’s emerging medical cannabis industry has taken another step forward with the opening of a manufacturing laboratory in El Guarco, Cartago, designed to turn locally grown cannabis into finished medical products. Vantage Point Global inaugurated the facility on Friday, August 28. The company says it is the first laboratory in Costa Rica dedicated to manufacturing medical cannabis products, including oils, concentrates, syrups and tablets.
Until now, the company’s Costa Rican operation, which uses the Hybrida Farms name, has primarily grown cannabis for export as a raw material. The new laboratory is intended to allow more of the production process to take place in Costa Rica rather than sending the crop overseas for processing.
The company plans to manufacture finished cannabis-based medicines for export to markets including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It also wants to sell products in Costa Rica once the regulatory process allows them to be registered for the domestic market. That remains one of the biggest obstacles facing the industry.
Costa Rica legalized cannabis for medical and therapeutic purposes in 2022 under Law 10,113. The law also permits hemp production for food and industrial purposes. However, Vantage Point Global says gaps in the rules still make it difficult to register finished medical cannabis products for sale inside Costa Rica, even though companies can produce cannabis for export.
The new facility could also bring more jobs to Cartago. Vantage Point Global says it currently employs about 85 people in one part of its operation and estimates that its workforce could eventually reach about 420 people if the business develops as planned. The opening comes several months after Costa Rica completed its first export of medical cannabis to Europe.
On March 13, Hybrida Farms shipped pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis from Costa Rica to the European Union. The shipment met European requirements, including certification under Good Agricultural and Collection Practices, known as GACP, a standard used for plants that will become pharmaceutical products. The Cartago operation has also faced an ongoing environmental dispute.
In February, Costa Rica’s Environmental Prosecutor’s Office and the Judicial Investigation Police searched the Hybrida Farms property as part of an investigation into alleged filling and draining of wetlands, possible encroachment on protected areas around springs and streams, and alleged failure to comply with orders stopping construction. Authorities named two people as defendants in the investigation. No conviction has been reported.
The Constitutional Chamber later ordered Costa Rica’s environmental authorities to keep construction work associated with the Hybrida Farms industrial project suspended while the government completes its review of the property. The court did not rule on whether the project’s original environmental approval was valid.
The laboratory opening nevertheless represents another significant development for an industry that barely existed legally in Costa Rica four years ago. For Costa Rica, the larger question will be whether medical cannabis develops mainly as another specialized agricultural export or whether Costa Rican patients will eventually have broader access to medicines manufactured from cannabis grown and processed inside the country.
