TABACUNDO, Ecuador – At one of Ecuador’s oldest flower farms, workers are planting hemp on land that traditionally used for roses, making a bet that selling cannabinoid products will help offset the decline in flower sales caused by the pandemic.
Declining sales spurred by the coronavirus outbreak dealt a heavy blow to Ecuador’s flower sector, one of the Andean nation’s traditional export industries, leaving farms cutting output or seeking to reinvent themselves.
The Boutique Flowers farm in Tabacundo, an hour north of the capital Quito, has built cannabis greenhouses to take advantage of recent legal reforms that allow for cultivation of the plant – even though marijuana remains illegal.
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