KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent. Nov 2, CMC – Agriculture Minister Israel Bruce has told traditional marijuana growers that they she get more involved in the development of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ medicinal cannabis industry.
Addressing the CannaBiz SVG Festival 2026, which ended here last weekend, Bruce, said that the sector’s growth must translate into meaningful economic opportunities for citizens and that traditional cultivators must be recognised not merely for their historical contribution, but as potential partners in the industry’s future.
“We must not allow the people who carried the industry through its difficult years to become spectators in its successful years,” Bruce said, calling for stronger organisation among traditional cultivators, improved access to financing, appropriate agricultural insurance, enhanced technical training and commercially viable partnerships between local farmers and licensed cannabis enterprises.
He spoke to the importance of cultivators organising themselves into a representative national association, enabling them to engage more effectively with government, regulators, financial institutions and established industry players.
Bruce said that the proposed National Development Bank could become a potential avenue for expanding access to financing for viable agricultural enterprises seeking to participate in the regulated industry.
“If we want our farmers to enter the formal economy, we must make the formal economy more accessible to our farmers,” he said, urging licensed businesses, including CANA SVG, Medicinal and other industry participants, to explore transparent and commercially sound arrangements that connect local cultivators to legitimate supply chains, processing opportunities, technical expertise and markets.
Bruce said that the industry’s success must be measured not only by investment and commercial expansion, but also by the opportunities it creates for local producers, the skills it develops, the employment it generates and the value retained within the local economy.
The Agriculture Minister identified five priorities for continued stakeholder engagement: strengthening cultivator organisation and representation; improving access to financing and risk protection; expanding technical training; developing partnerships between cultivators
and licensed enterprises; and strengthening the connections between local production, value-added processing, research and legitimate markets.
“We must not simply cultivate cannabis. We must cultivate opportunity,” Bruce told the CannaBiz SVG Festival 2026, hosted by the Medicinal Cannabis Authority of St.Vincent and the Grenadines and included a medicinal cannabis conference, a trade exhibition and expo, and a National Youth Symposium focused on substance misuse prevention, mental health, resilience and healthy decision-making.
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