Australian cultivators claim the domestic market is being flooded with imported flower produced using untested and potentially carcinogenic synthetic chemicals, exposing what they describe as a regulatory blind spot.
Plant growth regulators (PGRs) are chemical compounds used to increase plant development, often limiting vertical growth while increasing flower density and yield.
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All product should be tested for PGRs, pesticides, insecticides, and other contaminants. At BLS, this is standard practice across both imported and locally produced material, with an expanded testing panel beyond EU Pharmacopoeia requirements. However, even when comparing like-for-like on compliance, there remains a persistent pricing—and often quality—gap between fully compliant imported product and Australian-grown material. Local cultivators need to address this. It’s achievable, and necessary.
Setting aside any protectionist narrative, it’s worth recognising that approximately 90% of the world’s paracetamol supply comes from India and China. Neither country is part of the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme—yet patients globally (including in Australia) rely on these supply chains every day.
This is directly analogous to pharmaceuticals more broadly. The API in Panadol—paracetamol (acetaminophen)—is manufactured overseas and imported. The same applies to cannabis APIs and starting materials entering Australia. The question is not origin per se, but compliance and control: all imported material must meet Australian standards and be processed locally by licensed GMP manufacturers.
So the real comparison isn’t “local vs foreign”—it’s compliant vs non-compliant, and value vs cost. Would you prefer API from China and India, or Thailand and South Africa? Cannabis from Colombia or Thailand (a PIC/S member)? In all cases, the determining factor is whether the product meets Australian regulatory and quality standards.
Ultimately, for patients—particularly in self-pay prescription markets—value is defined by quality, safety, efficacy, and price. API cost and quality are fundamental drivers of both. Australian cannabis must compete on this global playing field.
Australia already demonstrates what leadership looks like. Tasmania is the world’s largest and most advanced opium poppy cultivation system for morphine and codeine production. There is no structural reason Australia cannot lead in cannabis cultivation as well. The challenge is not foreign competition, PGR concerns, or compliance gaps—it is cost efficiency and scale.
Australian cultivators should be focused on how to scale operations and compete on both cost and quality internationally, while recognising that some markets will always have structural cost advantages (e.g. labour and inputs).
That said, locally grown product does have inherent advantages: no import bottlenecks, reduced regulatory friction, and avoidance of rising international freight costs. This creates a clear opportunity. Now is the time to invest in efficiency, scale production, and grow alongside the domestic market.
Agreed. We should definitely be testing for PGRs.