Hybrida Farms runs medical cannabis production on Costa Rica’s renewable grid

Hybrida Farms says its Cartago valley operation is powered by Costa Rica’s 98.6% renewable grid and is tied to the country’s first cannabis medicine manufacturing license. The company is positioning the facility as both a low-carbon supply chain for export markets and a source of skilled local jobs.

Why it matters: - Hybrida Farms is trying to link medical cannabis production with one of the cleanest power grids in the world. - The company says every stage of production runs on Costa Rica’s national grid, which was 98.6% renewable in 2025. - The setup matters because pharmaceutical cannabis grown under managed light, temperature and humidity is electricity-intensive, and much of the global licensed supply is produced indoors on fossil-heavy grids. - The company is also using the operation to build skilled jobs in Cartago and nearby communities.

What happened: - Hybrida Farms said on Oct. 20, 2026, that its Cartago valley operation runs on Costa Rica’s national grid rather than on-site power generation. - The company said it was behind Costa Rica’s first medical cannabis export to the European Union in March 2026. - The Ministry of Health issued Costa Rica’s first cannabis medicine manufacturing license on Aug. 19, 2026, authorizing Vantage Point Global Labs in El Tejar, El Guarco. - Vantage Point Global Labs is Hybrida Farms’ GMP laboratory and receives EU-GACP flower from the farm for manufacturing.

The details: - Costa Rica’s utility, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, reported the grid was 98.6% renewable in 2025. - Hydropower supplied about three-quarters of that power, wind and geothermal about 11% each, and thermal generation about 1.4%. - The renewable share has topped 98% every year since 2015, except during the drought years of 2023 and 2024. - Hybrida Farms grows in hybrid greenhouses at about 1,400 meters, where daylight and mild temperatures stay relatively stable year round. - The company said LED fixtures supplement natural sunlight, keeping electricity demand below that of a fully indoor facility. - Precision drip fertigation meters water and nutrients at the root, using less water and creating less runoff than open-field farming. - The farm’s in-house tissue culture lab propagates certified genetics under sterile conditions. - Hybrida Farms said that process produces uniform, pathogen-free starting plants with a documented genetic origin for every batch. - Positive-pressure greenhouses with central climate control manage air quality and humidity. - EU-GACP rules require every input to be recorded against each batch. - Third-party laboratories test every batch for potency and contaminants. - Every export moves through Costa Rica’s VUCE 2.0 single window with chain-of-custody documentation. - The group’s assets include an 18.2-hectare campus on the site of a former hydroponic tomato operation, renovated since 2023. - The company said EU-GACP audits have been completed with high marks. - The group holds MAG licenses to cultivate and produce psychoactive cannabis, a positive binding determination from the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas, the Ministry of Health manufacturing license, a licensed pharmaceutical distributor, and PROCOMER exporter registration. - The company’s product lines include EU-GACP flower and raw cannabis material from Hybrida Farms, plus concentrates, oils, medicinal syrups, oral tablets, and contract manufacturing from Vantage Point Labs, subject to product registration. - Priority export markets are Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, followed by Poland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Argentina. - In the U.S., Hybrida Farms said it has moved cannabis material into the country for analytical testing through the DEA import permit process.

Between the lines: - Hybrida Farms is pitching a vertically integrated model where genetics, cultivation, testing, manufacturing and export documentation stay under one traceable group. - That structure can reduce handoffs and make compliance easier to document for European regulators and buyers. - The company is also framing sustainability as part of commercial positioning, not just an environmental claim. - The emphasis on local hiring suggests the business is trying to align export growth with Costa Rican economic development. - D. Cree Crawford, president and CEO of Vantage Point Global, Corp., said the company wants to measure its full footprint and become independently certified carbon negative. - Crawford also linked that goal to Costa Rica’s net-zero-by-2050 target. - Riley Shields, head of production, said the hardest part of pharmaceutical cannabis is control, traceability and documentation. - Jorge Luis Calderón Chaves, general manager of Hybrida Farms and Vantage Point Global CR S.A., said the knowledge, jobs, salaries and pride stay in Costa Rica.

What’s next: - The company says it will continue scaling manufacturing and cultivation as product registrations allow. - Hybrida Farms says it is working to bring registered cannabis medicines to Costa Rican patients as well as export markets. - The group says it expects hundreds more local jobs as production expands. - The company is also pursuing carbon-negative certification and continued alignment with Costa Rica’s low-carbon power system.

The bottom line: - Hybrida Farms is betting that clean electricity, tight pharmaceutical controls and local job creation can make Costa Rica a competitive cannabis export base.