Cyprus raises its agricultural hemp definition to the EU’s 0.3% limit

Cyprus changed the industrial-hemp production law’s definition in February 2024, replacing its fixed 0.2% THC ceiling with a reference to the EU’s 0.3% agricultural standard. The amendment stated that it was deemed effective from 7 December 2021.

The earlier law had written in a fixed percentage

The 2016 hemp law created licences for producers and suppliers and required registration of their premises. Its definition covered Cannabis sativa plants, plant parts and seeds from varieties containing no more than 0.2% THC.

That percentage determined which crops qualified under the agricultural system. Farmers also had to comply with seed, record-keeping, storage and inspection requirements.

The definition therefore worked alongside the licensing conditions. Choosing a qualifying variety was one requirement within an ongoing system of official supervision.

Parliament tied the definition to the EU rule

The 2024 amendment replaced the agricultural definition with a reference to the relevant limit in the EU regulation governing national agricultural-support plans.

That rule uses a 0.3% THC standard for qualifying hemp varieties. The European Commission also explains certified-seed and import requirements, together with the possibility of more restrictive national rules.

Cyprus applied its new wording to whole plants, plant parts and seeds from qualifying varieties. Referring to the EU rule changed how the percentage was expressed in domestic legislation.

The law gave its change retrospective effect

The amendment appeared in the national gazette on 16 February 2024. Its final clause deemed its effect to have begun on 7 December 2021.

That distinction matters when following the history: parliament published the amendment in 2024 and attached an earlier legal effect to it. The licensing system established in 2016 continued around the revised definition.

The hemp-production law also continued to exclude derivatives from its scope, listing examples such as seed oil, flour, food and drink. The amendment changed the crop definition within that agricultural system.

The narcotics text retains separate wording

The reproduced narcotics law still defines industrial hemp with a 0.2% figure, while making its cultivation and seed restrictions subject to the hemp-production legislation. Its wording and the amended agricultural definition need to be read together.

The agricultural amendment retained licensed production and trade as the route for qualifying crops. Cyprus’s profile records that distinction alongside the separate medical-production rules and the continuing prohibition on ordinary cannabis home growing.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}