‘CANNABIS WILL BRING US MORE REVENUE THAN LITHIUM AND RENEWABLE ENERGY PUT TOGETHER’
You said that “cannabis is virtuous, fantastic, tremendous.” What does it mean for Jujuy Province? We have authorised planting 35 hectares with plans to increase that to 600 more. We’ve already purchased the drying plant in Europe while a lab is coming here from the United States to add to the pilot lab we’ve had for over a year now. We’ve already managed a ton of plants in bloom with another ton set to be produced from the initial plantation of 35 hectares and then 15 tons. In late September we’ll be providing public hospitals with oil to apply to cases of refractory drug-resistant epilepsy. Then we have an agreement with Universidad Austral for application as a cancer pain-killer.
None of these uses is psychotropic or psychiatric.
It’s CBD (cannabidiol). Cannabis has THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the cannabinoid psychotropic component and CBD, which isn’t. A few weeks ago it was authorised for over-the-counter sale in Europe so that with CBD we’re already manufacturing cannabis oil.
Is it correct to compare it with soy? There are 600 hectares employing almost 2,000 workers which will rise to 8,000 in 2023, according to plan – that’s more workers than the entire tobacco industrial complex. I hope that in the next five or seven years it comes to substitute tobacco as the alternative. There we have 15,000 workers but only two or three months a year while the 8,000 in cannabis work all the year round. The company is public with 600 hectares, yielding us more revenue than lithium and renewable energy put together. We estimate invoicing US$250-300 million with a profit of around US$200 million.
Will it be Jujuy’s main source of wealth?
More than lithium and any farming produce. As from March or April next year we’ll be summoning the private sector to invest. In five or seven years it should be substituting the production of tobacco, which is a challenge. By the end of the year we’ll have a project for the production of bioplastics while with the 35 hectares, we’ll have 15 tons of hemp since only the flower is used for oil. This hemp can be used for bioplastics, paper and textiles.you can imagine what that implies for our handicrafts artisans in Purmamarca and Tilcara.
Will there be ponchos made of cannabis?
A poncho with cannabis fabric. That opens up a different scientific and technological challenge, which is what happened to us with lithium.
Until 10 years ago the province lived off tobacco. Lithium and cannabis have changed the paradigm.
And renewable energy. We’ve got a 300-megawatt plant.
Renewable energy is a nationwide question.
We’re among world leaders for solar radiation. Salta and Catamarca are important for lithium too. We have the commitment of a Chinese company and an Italian company to manufacture lithium batteries when there is electric mobility.
So you’d have lithium as a raw material and the battery as the manufactured product?
We produce lithium carbonate. To arrive at a lithium battery, you need to activate the lithium carbonate. Then you have to process it, which is another stage, and then the third, lithium-ion cells and litter and the whole ensemble of batteries.
How many countries in the world do that?
The second stage of activating the material is limited to 10 countries.
Does that include those two other lithium powers, Bolivia and Chile?
No. Chile was always more advanced but has not reached the manufacturing stage yet, it doesn’t have the technology. Bolivia lags behind us. We have a more important scientific and technological development than Chile. We’ll be within that select group of countries manufacturing lithium batteries at every stage.
[Productive Development Minister] Matías Kulfas was one of those promoting the development of the cannabis industry and at the same time is one of the ministers criticised by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. How was your own experience with him?
Very good. He’s also pushing electric mobility, the direction in which the world is going and in which Argentina should be going. In 2050, if we don’t do anything, the temperature in Jujuy will rise five to seven degrees. Our Cauchari solar plant is like taking 200,000 cars burning fuel and generating carbon emissions out of circulation. And lithium and lithium batteries are the best accumulators of energy for electric mobility. Argentina must form part of the changes in the global energy matrix and in transport. We have the Girsu project financed by the European Investment Bank. We receive a subsidy of 11 million euros from the European Union and we have already eliminated 16 open-air rubbish dumps while in two years we will eliminate almost 70 in the province. The third factor behind the emission of greenhouse gases in the province of Jujuy is the poor treatment of solid waste. That’s the path, for the province and for Argentina. We’re doing that with a plan of electric mobility, obliging auto companies to come up with designs of electric cars, generating that change so that in 20 years all cars will be electric. Besides, it’s more economical while the scientific and technological development of the batteries grows. A cell battery which today lasts 24 hours will last five days one or two years from now so that a Tesla which currently has an autonomy of 300 kilometres will have 1,500 with that new version of battery. It’s a revolutionary change, something virtuous and good for the planet.
Like Joe Biden’s green Marshall Plan.
The cannabis plant is something which does most to eliminate carbon emissions. However you look at it, it is virtuous.
Instead of that “weed” soy, we’re facing a magic plant here.
We have a great potential. Apart from tax measures, the country will resolve its economy from the outside looking in with a plan for 10 to 15 years from now.
You return to the theme of planning. Every Argentine must be an entrepreneur at heart and for that to happen you need a state with a plan which develops that entrepreneurial spirit with all its energy. The market does not do that alone, it is achieved by a country with a plan.