Cyprus licenses hemp farming and trade at up to 0.2% THC

Cyprus opened a licensed route for industrial-hemp farming and trade in April 2016. Qualifying plants and seed varieties had to contain no more than 0.2% THC, and producers and suppliers had to enter an agricultural licensing system.

Hemp received an exception from the drug restrictions

The new law regulated industrial-hemp production and trade. A companion amendment changed the narcotics law so that its cultivation and cannabis-seed restrictions operated subject to the hemp legislation.

That mattered to farmers because unauthorised cannabis growing remained a criminal offence. The agricultural route gave qualifying hemp a defined place outside the ordinary prohibition, provided the licensing conditions were followed.

The original definition covered whole Cannabis sativa plants, plant parts and seeds from qualifying varieties. The 0.2% THC limit was written into the legislation itself.

Producers and suppliers needed licences and registered sites

The Agriculture Department became the responsible authority. A person or company could produce or supply industrial hemp only after receiving a licence for the relevant activities.

Premises also had to be registered. The law required compliance with its annex, including rules for seed, records and storage, and allowed official controls and sampling.

A licence ran until the end of the fifth year after issue, subject to the law’s conditions and the authority’s power to revoke it. Producers and suppliers were recorded in an official register.

The crop law separated farming from finished products

The legislation expressly left hemp derivatives outside its scope. It listed examples including fibre, processing residues, seed oil, seed flour, and hemp in food and drink.

Its immediate purpose was therefore to organise the crop and primary trade. A licence described the activities its holder could undertake, with seed and premises requirements attached.

For farmers choosing varieties or planning storage and sales, those conditions were as important as the headline THC percentage. Growing a crop legally depended on participation in the controlled agricultural system.

Parliament later changed how the THC limit was defined

The 2024 amendment replaced the fixed 0.2% definition in the agricultural law with a reference to the EU’s 0.3% standard. It gave that amendment retrospective effect from December 2021.

The licensing system remained. Cyprus also developed a separate medical-cannabis production framework in 2019, with different authorities and conditions.

Cyprus’s profile distinguishes those two licensed activities from ordinary home growing, which continues to be prohibited under the drug law.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}