GCNC World View: The Global Cannabis Business Podcast · GCNC

GCNC World View: Going Green In Greece

·31 min·2 clips

Riekel Fulcarelli says he was “a marketing director with nothing to market” while Greece worked through regulations.

1. GCNC World View: Going Green In Greece centers on Greycan’s effort to build a cannabis business in Greece under EU and Greek regulatory rules. 2. The host returns after a break, and Riekel Fulcarelli, Greycan’s director of marketing in Greece, explains why the company spent two years with “nothing to market.” 3. The episode asks what it takes to build a European cannabis supply business when Greece requires local cultivation and the paperwork takes longer than expected. 4. Riekel says he came from the financial industry, where he found investments in small companies and then moved into a hemp genetics project in Oregon in 2017. 5. He says the industry felt like “Silicon Valley” at the time because the shows were full of people in their 20s and the pace was fast. 6. He says genetics matter first because farming is risky and a strong genetic base can help protect product quality. 7. Riekel says he helped found Jupiter Seed Europe in 2019 and put the first two genetics into the catalog so European farmers could compete with American farmers. 8. He says Greece appealed because it does not allow imported product to be blended in, which he describes as a way to avoid “cheating.” 9. He says Greycan wanted an all-European project with European genetics, Spanish breeders, equipment from Holland and Germany, self-financing, and access to European funds. 10. He says the Greek government requires growing inside Greece, which means the company can harvest and deliver in less than 45 days and avoid long transit through Portugal or across the Atlantic. 11. He argues that the current European pricing race ignores the fact that Germany and the UK are the only two large countries with medical cannabis legal today. 12. He says France, Italy, and Spain will come on line and add about 400 million people to the marketplace. 13. He says oversupply is only a temporary issue if buyers let suppliers make a decent product and earn enough to stay in business. 14. The conversation turns to marketing, where he says the best strategy is to be the best in a sector instead of trying to be the cheapest. 15. The host compares that view with cannabis markets in Colombia and Peru and says cheap-only positioning usually leaves one winner and many losers. 16. Riekel says Greycan chose genetics by looking at Spannabis and cannabis cups, then focused on pairing the right breeders with the right growers. 17. He says the hardest part is finding people who understand both the plant and agriculture, because those skills do not always come together in the same person. 18. The episode stays conversational and practical, with the host and guest moving between regulation, logistics, pricing, and patient access. 19. People following European cannabis supply chains and Greek medical markets will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a broad consumer-cannabis culture discussion will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A Greek market conversation about margins, positioning, and why cheap rarely wins.

GCNC World View returns to Greece to open a wider look at Europe’s cannabis business, with the host back after a health related absence and steering a conversation about margins, market structure, and the need for profit that can actually support a business.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Greece angle on cannabis markets without the usual gloss.

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