Germany received its first imports of medicinal cannabis from Portugal and Australia this week. Two German companies took delivery of the shipments that will be used for testing purposes and to supply the country’s growing demand for medical marijuana, which was legalized in 2017.

In Cologne, Cannamedical Pharma received a commercial shipment of cannabis from a company in Portugal. Although the company did not identify the shipper, last month Tilray Portugal announced that it had come to an agreement with Cannamedical to export medicinal cannabis to Germany.

“The European market is clearly developing its ability to grow and ship world-class medicinal cannabis products, which is an important step in the development of the EU medicinal cannabis market, which we believe will be the world’s largest. Cannamedical continues to demonstrate that our approach as the leading independent importer of finding the best products in all supply markets to serve to our patients can establish milestones within the industry,” said David Henn, the CEO of Cannamedical.

“We are proud of the contribution we are making to provide a stable supply of medicinal cannabis to patients in Germany and thankful for our world-class supply partners,” he added.

The medical marijuana received by Cannamedical will be packaged in Germany and should be ready for patients beginning in mid-October.

In Frankfurt, Cansativa received a sample shipment of medical cannabis oils for testing purposes. The cannabis oil was produced in Australia, which legalized medical marijuana in 2016, by the company Little Green Pharma. Benedikt Sons, the co-managing director of Cansativa, said in a press release that the company was adding additional suppliers to meet the growing demand for medical marijuana in Germany.

“Our new partner in Australia helps us to tackle the growing supply problems in the German market and secure the amount of deliveries necessary to meet the increasing demands by the patients,” said Sons. “This is an important step in ensuring security of supply for patients in Germany.”

In April, Cansativa announced that it was the first German company authorized to import cannabis from Uruguay and Colombia. The first samples from Uruguay have already been received by the company and the initial delivery from Colombia is expected soon.

“Cansativa has aggregated a lot of know-how over the last year regarding process reliability, dealing with authorities, market structure, competition, and the necessary legal expertise. Just recently we successfully imported our first samples from Uruguay,” Sons added. “With the Australian import, we once again underscore our ambition to provide security of supply through global sourcing. As a first mover of the whole industry, we make our contribution to a more professional and reliable market.”

Germany has relied on imports of medical marijuana from countries including Canada and the Netherlands since legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis two years ago. Domestic cultivators have been licensed by the government, but the initial harvests from them are not expected until late 2020.