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Item 1 of 3 Cannabis buds used to extract medicinal CBD oil are placed in a beaker as Kiara Cardoso, founder of DNA Solucoes em Biotecnologia, works, in Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kira Duarte/File Photo
[1/3]Cannabis buds used to extract medicinal CBD oil are placed in a beaker as Kiara Cardoso, founder of DNA Solucoes em Biotecnologia, works, in Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kira Duarte/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SAO PAULO, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Brazilian agricultural research agency Embrapa has received the greenlight from health agency Anvisa to research the cannabis plant, a landmark move that puts farming powerhouse Brazil a step closer towards authorizing its cultivation.
In an interview on Friday, Embrapa researcher Daniela Bittencourt welcomed Anvisa’s decision this week, which gives the agency unprecedented permission to build its first-ever cannabis seed bank and develop projects to genetically improve the plant for various applications.
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Embrapa will also research hemp used to produce fibers, Bittencourt said.
“This is only the beginning,” Bittencourt said by telephone from Brasilia. “Our plan is to carry out research for 12 years but it may possibly go on forever, like what happens with soy and corn.”
Similar research efforts from Embrapa since the 1970s opened up vast regions of Brazil for large-scale soybean farming, kicking off a significant increase in the country’s output of the oilseed to make it the world’s largest producer and exporter.
Embrapa scientists, who breed genetic varieties of grains, cotton and vegetables best suited for Brazil’s tropical climate, applied in September of 2024 for authorization from health agency Anvisa to carry out cannabis research.
Embrapa’s work may also grab international attention from cannabis companies, which have shown interest in Brazil’s potential for the development and domestic sale of medicinal and industrial cannabis products for a long time.
An initial 13 million reais ($2.41 million) in public funding will imminently be released to fund Embrapa’s cannabis research, Bittencourt said, adding the agency is open to studying the plant in partnership with the private sector.
Despite recent delays, Bittencourt also said she is confident that by March 2026, Anvisa will issue pending regulation for cannabis cultivation in Brazil after a court ruling obliged it to do so in November 2024.
In 2019, Anvisa had approved regulations for the rollout of medicinal cannabis products but in a separate vote blocked a proposal to allow domestic medical marijuana plantations.
In the decision authorizing Embrapa’s cannabis research, Anvisa said it is developing rules for growing cannabis “for medicinal and scientific purposes.”
Planting and selling recreational marijuana remains prohibited in Brazil, though purchasing and possessing up to 40 grams of marijuana for personal use is no longer a crime.
($1 = 5.3926 reais)
(This story has been corrected to say that Embrapa applied for authorization to conduct cannabis research in September 2024, not February 2024, in paragraph 6)
Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Richard Chang
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Ana Mano reports on agricultural commodities companies and markets in farming powerhouse Brazil, a crucial part of the Reuters’ global file. Based in São Paulo, she has covered the rise of ‘national meat champions’ JBS and Marfrig in the early 2000s, reported on Brazil’s logistics transformation to boost exports to China via northern ports, and more recently broke news on the threats to the Soy Moratorium, an industry pact credited with slowing soy-driven deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
The US federal government will not publish official data on inflation for October, depriving policymakers at the Federal Reserve of key information as they consider whether to cut interest rates.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics canceled the release of the closely watched consumer price index (CPI) for October, citing the government shutdown – the longest in history, before it ended earlier this month – and stating it could not “retroactively collect” the data required for the report.
The decision, announced on Friday, heightens uncertainty around the strength of the US economy. Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, had already likened the central bank’s task of guiding the economy, without standard data on its performance, to “driving in the fog”.
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Price growth remains above typical levels, according to recent CPI releases. Donald Trump, who for months denied inflation was still high, has in recent weeks taken several steps to tackle concerns around affordability.
Fed officials, under pressure from persistent demands from Trump, are meanwhile weighing whether to cut interest rates. The central bank raised rates aggressively in 2022 and 2023 to combat inflation, and started cautiously cutting them late last year.
Powell has made clear he planned to trade carefully in the absence of important information on the economy’s strength, and direction. “We’re going to collect every scrap of data we can find, evaluate itand think carefully about it,” he said last month. “What do you do if you’re driving in the fog? You slow down.”
That said, a speech by one Fed policymaker lifted expectations of another rate cut in December. John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said on Friday that he still saw “room for a further adjustment in the near term” to rates.
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The latest jobs report, for September, was a mixed bag, with 119,000 jobs added, but the unemployment rate ticked up to its highest level since 2021, and growth estimates for the preceding months were revised lower.
The September jobs report was also disrupted by the shutdown, and released more than a month later. The complete October report will not be released at all, although data on the number of jobs created or lost in that month will be published alongside the full report for November – a week after the next Fed meeting.
A member of the BBC’s board has resigned after stating he was cut out of the discussions that led up to the shock resignation of its director general, Tim Davie.
Shumeet Banerji, a tech industry executive, was away in the crucial days before the departure of Davie and the head of BBC News, Deborah Turness.
The pair quit after tense board discussions over how to respond to allegations of liberal bias made by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards committee. Prescott left that role in the summer.
