The Channel Island of Jersey provided Germany’s medical hashish market with extra flower than Colombia final 12 months, current knowledge reveals.
All exports got here from one single cultivator, accounting for round 90% of the island’s whole output and placing Jersey on the map as one of many main producers of medical hashish per capita.
For the reason that introduction of Germany’s hashish reforms in April 2024, which partially legalised adult-use and simplified entry for sufferers, the nation has seen a surge in demand for prescriptions, solidifying its place as Europe’s largest and most developed market.
Knowledge launched by Germany’s Ministry of Well being in March reveals imports of medical hashish surpassed 200 tonnes for the primary time final 12 months, practically triple 2024’s whole.
However the figures additionally level to refined modifications in provide chain dynamics.
Whereas total imports fell by roughly 4.5% within the ultimate quarter, exports from the UK (together with the British Channel Islands) elevated by greater than 11 occasions year-on-year, reaching over 1,500kg in This fall, the very best quarterly whole on document.
Talking to Enterprise of Hashish beforehand, analysts at Prohibition Companions recognized “stronger provide chains” rising from UK exporters — and “primarily Jersey”.
Jersey’s rising function in European provide
During the last two years, the small Channel Island of Jersey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency between the UK and France, has quietly change into a hub for medical hashish manufacturing.
In response to Steven Tan, CEO of Northern Leaf, which operates the most important EU-GMP facility on the island, it’s now considered one of Europe’s main producers.
The corporate, which produces bulk flower API to be used in completed cannabis-based medicines, is considered one of six licensed producers within the island however accounts for an estimated 90% of all present medical hashish manufacturing, all of which is exported to European markets such because the UK and Germany.
In 2025, the corporate provided 3,590kg to Germany, making it the most important exporter of UK-produced medical hashish flower into the German market.
Steven Tan, CEO of Northern Leaf
Turnaround success
Tan, who brings 15 years of expertise within the hashish trade, specialising in genetics and large-scale cultivation, was appointed CEO in 2024 following a change in administration and possession on the firm.
Drawing on his distinctive world community and in depth restructuring expertise, he has efficiently led Northern Leaf by means of a powerful operational and monetary turnaround, rising capability from 25% to 75% at its 100,000 sq ft facility, leading to a fivefold improve in income.
Jersey’s medical hashish trade advantages from a singular regulatory and geographical panorama, Tan says, with what he believes to be the quickest export allow turnaround globally, and a two-hour ferry journey to mainland France, that means shipments can arrive in Germany as a direct route in 36 hours.
Speedy export certification, fast entry to worldwide markets, and powerful reliability and responsiveness are essential components for making certain medical hashish flower stays of a constant high quality and freshness all through the distribution course of.
These components additionally allow the corporate to deal with what Tan sees as a key structural problem within the European sector, the place many merchandise are nonetheless imported from Canada, offering a constant, dependable, and scalable native provide that may develop and assist construct world manufacturers.
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A brand new export trade emerges
Medical hashish is more and more being positioned by the Authorities of Jersey and trade our bodies because the island’s subsequent main export sector, as conventional Jersey produce like tomatoes and potatoes, declines.
A report recently revealed by Jersey’s Economic system Division discovered that the trade turned a revenue for the primary time final 12 months, with over £12m of income, nearly £50m of funding, and 70 folks now working within the sector.
Talking to the Jersey Night Put up following the report, Jersey’s Financial Growth Minister Kirsten Morel referred to as for a “recommitment” to the biopharmaceutical sector, positioning it as a “high-value, low-footprint” trade that would assist diversify the financial system past monetary providers, which account for round 38% of Jersey’s financial system.
It comes amid a a lot wider push to help long-term financial diversification as Jersey’s finance trade declined by 6.2% in 2024, whereas agricultural exports have skilled a long-term fall in worth.
Jersey’s largest agricultural export continues to be Jersey Royals, which make up 95% of all exported fruit and greens, however these potatoes too face a downward pattern, falling by 11% between 2018 and 2022. Glasshouse crops, together with tomatoes, skilled even sharper contraction, declining by greater than 60% between 2011 and 2015.
In opposition to this backdrop, the Authorities’s Export Technique 2023-2026 recognized medical hashish as offering a “robust alternative” to construct Jersey’s export power in a brand new trade whereas attracting enterprise and funding.
Tan expects the sector may quickly generate tens of hundreds of thousands of kilos yearly and rival the financial worth of Jersey’s potato trade, which was valued at £31.6m in 2017.
Northern Leaf has the capability to supply 33% of the identical income because the potato trade, he explains, utilizing lower than 1% of the land house.
A ‘one-time alternative’ for Jersey
However for the sector to satisfy its full potential, the Authorities should proceed to work with corporations like Northern Leaf to deal with among the remaining limitations to progress, Tan says.
This contains power payments, which stay excessive in comparison with rivals in different nations, and account for round 30% of the corporate’s working prices.
“The federal government has been very supportive, and the truth that they’re regulatory pushed assures these within the world hashish trade of our excessive requirements of manufacturing and regulation,” says Tan, chatting with Enterprise of Hashish.
“The problem Jersey now faces is in additional creating its framework to enhance downstream worth and higher understanding the medical hashish trade’s distinctive power tariff and regulatory wants.”
He provides: “In any other case, over the subsequent few years, corporations like Northern Leaf will transfer extra in the direction of a distribution mannequin, and manufacturing will naturally be outsourced to third-party nations abroad, which in my opinion could be lacking a one-time alternative for Jersey to change into a serious participant within the world hashish cultivation house.”
