Following the announcement last year by new President Duma Boko (pictured here), Botswana is exploring regulatory options with international and African stakeholders and financial institutions to seek consensus on the playing field before licensing the players.

About 300 delegates are expected at this weekend's Inaugural Hemp Business Conference in Gaberone (pictured right) , which is bringing international investors, government officials, African hemp players, financial institutions, academics and economists together to put together market-friendly guidelines for the hemp industry.

Contrast this to the situation in South Africa where the commercialisation of hemp was on the Agricultural Reseacrh Council's radar way back in 1998. Now, well over a quarter of a century later, the Department of Trade and Industry is 'working on' a hemp commercialization policy that will be released for stakeholder comment "soon".  

Botswana has a clear goal in opening up the industrial and medical cannabis market: it wants to reduce its dependence on diamond export revenue.

Sales of rough diamonds at the Debswana Diamond Company fell about 52% in the first nine months of 2024, as the downturn in the global diamond market persisted. Botswana’s Central Bank reported that Debswana had sold diamonds worth $1.53 billion compared to $3.19 billion in the same period last year. In local currency terms, sales were down 50.3% to 20.9 billion pula, which translates to about $1.55 billion based on current exchange rates.

Botswana has a long way to go before industrial cannabis can be any kind of meaningful alternative to diamonds, but it has a far better chance of developing its hemp economy more rapidly than neighbouring South Africa.

South Africa’s hemp industry was plunged into disarray last month with the Health Minister’s ban on hemp foodstuffs, which was then quickly rescinded by President Ramaphosa. Nonetheless, there remains a complete dysfunctionality among Government departments that has led to policy paralysis. After 25 years of market research and seven years of wasted stakeholder consultation, the Cannabis Master Plan is being rebuilt from scratch by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTIC).

The DTIC is rumoured to be working on a hemp commercialization policy which envisages THC limits being set at 2%, 10 times higher than the current 0,2% which was legislated against the advice of government’s own experts.

There has been no geographical distinction of where hemp should be planted in South Africa to avoid the cross-pollination with high-THC crops.

Neither has there been any environmental impact survey to assess what effect imported genetics would have on local landraces.

The showcase hemp project in South Africa is Medigrow’s R1 billion Eastern Cape project which aimed to incorporate thousands of small-scale growers into a market network. However, the company – and the Eastern Cape government – have run into opposition from Mpondoland legacy farmers who do not want low THC varietals introduced into the area.

Many observers have noted that the hilly topography of Mpondoland is ill-suited to industrial hemp production. Botswana with its flat open plains is far more suited to production economics.

Hence the international investor interest in Botswana, particularly from North American countries who are attracted by the country’s stability and intention to establish a level regulatory playing field before opening up the market.

#