Vancouver-based ICC International Cannabis Corporation will begin producing and exporting medicinal cannabis in Uruguay next year as competitors at home prepare to make a big push into the recreational marijuana market.
The company will change its name to ICCLabs before the end of the year or early next year, Chief Executive Officer Alejandro Antalich said in an interview Thursday at his office in Montevideo, Uruguay. “The idea is to become a pharmaceutical company.”
ICC is bucking the trend in the marijuana market as Canadian peers bet that recreational pot will drive growth when Canada legalizes weed next year. While ICC is Uruguay’s largest producer of the plant, the nation’s population of 3.4 million people and heavy government regulation limit expansion of its pot business. Canadian marijuana producers have surged 45 percent in the past year, beating ICC’s 13 percent decline during the same period, according to the BI Canada Cannabis Competitive Peers Index.
Read more at Bloomberg (Ken Parks)