A byline by Michael Sassano
Everyone in cannabis has been watching Curaleaf’s hostile takeover bid for Aurora Cannabis this year. One point came through crystal clear: genuine EU-GMP certification has massive, undeniable value in global medical cannabis. Curaleaf already trades at a real premium to its MSO peers, most likely a reflection of its global footprint, and the fight over Aurora is only adding fuel to that premium.
For the last many years, most of Canada has been aggressively dumping flower into international markets, crushing prices, most without holding actual EU-GMP status. The companies that actually hold the certification hold the true value, and the ones without are all rushing now to get GMP qualification or risk being shut out of global markets.
Regulators from Germany to the UK are now laser-focused on one practice: GMP washing. Although there are only a few states enforcing the rules, the speculation is that it will spread as groups move their operations to friendlier jurisdictions.
The “GMP Washing” Practice, Explained
GMP washing works like this: a GACP-certified grower sends dried, cured flower to a GMP facility. That facility redries it, retrims it, and cures it again. Then it slaps a “GMP” stamp on the product. The reality is they don’t do much except add the stamp, since the product is already the best the cultivator could make it.
The extract version follows the similar logic: non-GMP bulk API extracts and finished dosage forms pass through a GMP facility for a single processing step, which essentially buys the costly GMP stamp. Both are blatant workarounds, and regulators have both squarely in their sights.
- The Israeli Price Collapse: Flower washing started in Israel. Canadian flower flooded the local market through this practice, prices collapsed, and local growers went out of business. Israel is now reopening an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian cannabis, calling the imports a strategic risk to its domestic industry. Today, it is one of the lowest-priced markets in the world, and many suppliers outright refuse to sell into it.
- The Australian Slide: Australia is living the exact same story now, but with cheap Thai flower doing what Canadian flower did first. This is driving prices down to a point where even the Canadians are questioning the economics.
- The Extract Crackdown: Canada took the same shortcut with extracts, despite a clear rule that GMP standards must start once the plant is extracted. The UK cracked down on this early, though it still exists to this day.
Limited EU-GMP vs. The GACP Flood
Only a handful of countries actually hold genuine EU-GMP certified production. The lower-cost GACP flower comes from Canadian and Thai producers, which then gets “washed” for Israel, Germany, the UK, and Australia, the primary destinations that have invested in the practice. Hundreds of Canadian cultivators and potentially even more licensed and unlicensed Thai growers are dumping into these markets through various washing conduits.
Put a number on it, and the scale of the mismatch is stark:
- There are probably 65 to 90 genuine EU-GMP certified cannabis grows and manufacturing facilities globally.
- This sits against maybe 1,300 true GACP cannabis operations worldwide: Canada’s roughly 900 licensed cultivators are the largest single national pool, though only some of those actually hold GACP certification rather than just a domestic Health Canada license, and probably 14,000-plus non-GACP cannabis operations once you add in US cultivation facilities alone.
The clearest count starts with Portugal. Infarmed now licenses 125 medical cannabis companies there, but only 25 hold EU-GMP certification, a share that keeps shrinking as the licensed base grows. Even so, it’s still the largest single concentration of EU-GMP capacity in the world. Other countries like Spain, Malta, Denmark, North Macedonia, Italy, Germany, Czechia, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, and Lesotho each hold just a handful of certified operators.
The Real Numbers Behind EU-GMP Demand
Demand is outrunning supply everywhere. Add up the big markets and the picture gets clear fast:
- Germany: Crossed €1.15 billion in 2026, importing over 201 tonnes of product in 2025 (up from 72.85 tonnes in 2024).
- The UK: Reached £226 million in 2025, with import volumes surging 138% year-on-year.
- Australia: Crossed AUD $1.1 billion in 2025, while still importing 60 to 65% of its supply, mostly from Canada.
Layer in growing markets like Israel, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic, and you have a global market nearing €2.6 billion.
The Certification Bottleneck
Building a new EU-GMP facility from scratch realistically takes a minimum of three years, with licensing taking up a long portion of that time. Converting an existing pharmaceutical-grade facility takes about two years just in regulatory waiting. Regulatory staff are limited, and applications are backing up.
Those timelines are going to stretch, not shrink. Every well-capitalized operator is rushing to get certified now, and that queue creates its own shortage. This shortage will drive prices up, potentially pushing some buyers back to the grey market. But the choice for regulators is not complicated: enforce the standard, or let the consumer carry the risk.
What Comes Next: Producers Take the Leverage
For the M&A market, the message is already clear: you need to be EU-GMP, and that value climbs daily. Curaleaf’s move on Aurora is the clearest proof yet. Distributors are racing to lock down EU-GMP supply, but there are not many. Those with a large share of the volume running through a GMP-washing step are working on their planning, and those valuing them are taking notice.
Many GMP strong growers have built, and will keep building, their own distribution arm, which puts the standalone distributor’s value proposition at risk. Going forward, the limited GMP producers will get pricing benefits, at least for a few years. The result will be higher prices for consumers, who have gotten used to cheap pricing.
Cannabis has always moved fast and loose, but EU-GMP rules have not. They have spent decades tightening pharma standards to build a moat around the industry, protecting both the industry and patients. Germany and the UK’s recent moves, including demands to see growers‘ actual GMP certificates, signal that the standard is being enforced harder than before. A correction is coming, and it will make the value of EU-GMP investment obvious, if it isn’t already.
About the author
Michael Sassano is one of the most respected executives in the pharmaceutical cannabis space today. Currently, Michael serves as Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board for SOMAÍ, a leading EU-GMP vertically integrated Multi-Country Operator (MCO) company with a global distribution footprint for the largest and most advanced EU-GMP-certified cannabinoid-containing pharmaceutical extract portfolio.
Disclaimer: Bylines by external contributors must not reflect the opinion of the editorial team. If you want to contribute as an external expert please reach out to redaktion at krautinvest.de.