Israel Ships First Medical Cannabis Seeds To Canada

Israel has shipped its first-ever batch of medical cannabis seeds to Canada.

BetterSeeds, an Israeli agtech company, uses gene-editing technology to develop new varieties of cannabis and agricultural seeds. 

The exported seeds are the first fully stable and uniform cannabis hybrid seeds in the world, meaning they have chosen characteristics of different strains for the best results, and their traits are predictable and do not vary much from seed to seed.

BetterSeeds also created the hemp seeds that were the first to ever be exported from Israel, which were shipped to the US three months ago.  

Canada is one of the largest and most developed fully legalized medical cannabis markets in the world. The Canadian market was among the first to allow its use for both medical and recreational purposes.

This comes over a year after the Israeli government changed the medical cannabis shipping laws to allow the export of cannabis seeds. Intensive activity by the Medical Cannabis Seed Forum, headed by BetterSeeds CEO Ido Margalit, led to the amendment of the Israeli law.

BetterSeeds uses CRISPR-case gene editing technology, a tool used to find specific DNA sequences, alter them and modify gene function, to develop new and improved varieties of selected crops. It embeds game-changing traits in seeds which are currently not available in major cash crops due to the limitations of conventional breeding and enhancement methods.

“The seeds that were sent to Canada are unique. We anticipate that they will revolutionize both the process of growing cannabis and the product standards in Canada, as our cannabis seeds are 100% stable and uniform,” said Margalit.

“This export is a real achievement for us and was made possible after Betterseeds led the change in law in Israel to allow the export of cannabis seeds.”

BetterSeeds was founded in 2017, and is located in Givat Hen, central Israel.