Ukraine Approves Country’s First Medical Cannabis Product Import Permit
Ukraine’s emerging legal medical cannabis industry continues to make strides, with a recent example being the nation’s first-ever approval of a medical cannabis product import permit. The permit’s approval was announced by the State Service of Ukraine on Medicine and Drugs Control.
“On June 2, 2025, the State Medical Service issued the first permit for the right to import medical cannabis substances into the territory of Ukraine.” the government stated in a news release (translated from Ukrainian to English). “The permit was issued for a substance that is registered in Ukraine and included in the State Register of Medicinal Products of Ukraine.”
The import permit announcement comes after Ukraine launched the country’s largest industrial hemp processing plant last month. The Ma’Ryzhany Hemp Company’s new facility is located in the Ma’Ryzhany industrial park in the Zhytomyr region and is estimated to be capable of processing up to 14,000 tons of hemp annually.
“Developing our own processing is one of the key tasks of the government’s policy “Made in Ukraine” and part of the national economic idea. We must change the structure of the economy from raw materials to high-tech and increase the production of goods with high added value.” Ukraine’s Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko stated, according to a government press release (translated from Ukrainian to English).
“Restoring the primary processing of hemp trust is one of the key elements for the further revival of industrial hemp, which once made Ukraine a powerful player in the global textile market. The presence of its own domestic raw materials is difficult to overestimate – it is the basis of price competitiveness. In addition, industrial hemp is not just a raw material for textiles, but an ecological and renewable resource for dozens of other industries. And the reconstruction of the textile chain is only the beginning of the great industrial potential that “Ma’Ryzhany Hemp Company” is laying today,” stated Ma’Ryzhany Hemp Company Director Andriy Mykytiv.
The goal of the industrial park where the new hemp processing facility is located is “to attract businesses working with industrial hemp processing products and create over 700 new jobs. The work of the park will also stimulate farmers to grow industrial hemp in the Zhytomyr region and contribute to the development of a sustainable industrial hemp ecosystem in Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s new industrial hemp processing plant is designed to produce long fiber for textiles and technical fabrics, short fiber for paper, nonwovens, and insulation, and raw material for bioplastics, building materials, and animal bedding.
According to local reporting by UNN, “the eHemp electronic system has been operating in Ukraine since March 10. 38 entities have been registered, 16 of which have sown 1,251 hectares of hemp.”
During a recent presentation at the International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin, leading international cannabis industry economist Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics, provided data demonstrating that the value of the global industrial hemp industry could be as much as $456.2 billion.