PGP Farmer Tests 30 Strains in Netherlands Before French Market Launch

French medical cannabis biotech PGP Farmer has opened a proof-of-concept phenotyping programme in the Netherlands, trialling 30 cannabis genotypes drawn from its own genetic library — a deliberate de-risking move ahead of what it expects will be France’s first EU-GMP-certified production facility.

The trial is the company’s most concrete operational step since closing a €3 million private round in February 2026. That capital is now being deployed into a three-phase programme run in partnership with Innexo BV, a Dutch applied-research platform licensed to conduct cannabis trials. Results will feed directly into cultivation and processing protocols at PGP Farmer’s planned 9-hectare site in the Dordogne, for which a building permit has already been granted.

Why the Netherlands, why now

Running phenotyping trials outside France is a practical necessity. France’s path to a permanent, reimbursed medical cannabis market is further along than its domestic production infrastructure — the pilot programme that ran through the country’s health system peaked at around 3,000 patients before transitioning toward a full rollout. France’s draft reimbursement framework was first disclosed publicly in February 2026. Cultivation and technical decrees are expected to be formally adopted in June 2026, with France’s drug regulator, the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé, opening product registration shortly after. France’s health-technology assessor, the Haute Autorité de Santé, is expected to issue a final reimbursement opinion in October or November 2026.

That clock matters for domestic producers. EU-GMP certification is not optional for commercial pharmaceutical supply — it is the baseline. To have validated, standardised strains ready by the time France’s market opens, operators need to begin selection now. Running that work under Innexo’s licensed trial infrastructure in the Netherlands — where the regulatory environment permits this kind of applied cannabis research — lets PGP Farmer complete strain selection while the French regulatory machinery catches up.

The trial is led by Frédéric Lota, PGP Farmer’s chief scientific officer and a plant biologist with 15 years of applied cannabis research experience. The selection criteria reflect pharmaceutical-customer requirements: stable cannabinoid profiles, production consistency, and reproducibility across cultivation runs.

“We do not select our varieties randomly,” Brahim Sebart, PGP Farmer’s co-founder and chief executive, said in the company’s trial announcement. “This POC tests 30 genotypes under rigorous conditions to retain only those that will guarantee patients a reliable, standardised and reproducible treatment.”

The export case behind the domestic play

PGP Farmer’s market framing is explicitly European rather than just French. European cannabis flower demand is growing at more than 20% annually, yet roughly 75% of EU-consumed flower is still imported — predominantly from Canada. Germany, the largest European market, imported close to 200 tonnes in 2025. PGP Farmer points to France’s geographic proximity to Germany as a structural advantage for export, and its Dordogne facility is sized for that ambition: projected long-term output is 30 tonnes once the site is fully operational.

That positioning is shared by most serious European producers. The thesis — build EU-GMP-certified capacity in Western Europe, displace Canadian imports on quality and logistics — has circulated in European cannabis investment discussions for several years. What converts a supply thesis into a credible production plan is execution. Phenotyping 30 strains before committing to cultivation protocols is the kind of pharmaceutical-process discipline that signals to potential pharmaceutical customers that the company operates by industry standards, not just announces them.

PGP Farmer says it is currently the only French operator positioned in the production of raw pharmaceutical-grade cannabis materials — a claim that, if it holds through France’s licensing process, would give it a first-mover window as the French regulatory calendar moves from draft decrees toward a functioning reimbursed market. The company is a member of France’s cannabis industry trade association and contributed to the joint assessment dossier submitted to the Haute Autorité de Santé in support of France’s full medical cannabis rollout.

What to watch

The three-phase structure of the phenotyping programme — selection, optimization, validation — tracks to a production timeline. If France’s Haute Autorité de Santé delivers its reimbursement opinion in late 2026 as signalled, commercial procurement from domestic producers would follow in 2027 at the earliest. PGP Farmer’s Dordogne site — permitted but not yet built — would need to move through construction and EU-GMP certification within that window to be positioned for the French domestic market opening and competitive for export into Germany.

The broader supply dynamic driving that demand has been well-documented across Europe. UK Medical Cannabis Imports Double as Canadian Producers Bypass Europe tracks how Canadian producers have captured European import markets that domestic EU producers are now moving to challenge — the same gap PGP Farmer’s Dordogne facility is designed to fill.