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White smoke emanating from Germany’s medical agency signals the wait is over to find out which firms have been awarded medicinal cannabis tenders for Europe’s top market.

Two Canadian firms, Aphria, and Aurora Cannabis and Germany’s Demecan have won out, it has emerged.

The three companies will split a four-year tender to grow 10,400kg between them. Aphria won five of the 13 lots, with Aurora Cannabis and Demecan handed five and three lots respectively.

Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) is acquiring the German-based, Bionorica SE-founded C3 Cannabinoid Compound Company in an all-cash deal valued at €225.9 million (CDN $342.9 million) or roughly $250 million. The move is intended to expand Canopy Growth’s reach in Europe.

Germany is awarding contracts to domestic cannabis growers in an attempt to develop its medical industry and become less reliant on imports.

BfArM – the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices of Germany – announced last Wednesday that it would purchase a total of 7,200 kilograms of cannabis over the next four years from German cultivation subsidiaries of Canadian companies Aurora Cannabis and Aphria.

A German cannabis wholesaler and distributor has announced that they have become the first European company to import medical cannabis products from Latin America for preliminary testing.

On Wednesday, Frankfurt-based Cansativa revealed that they would be importing a variety of cannabis flower and extract products from Uruguay and Colombia to be tested by independent German laboratories for heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants.

In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to completely legalize marijuana, though sales did not begin until July of 2017.

Hemp food stakeholders in Europe have taken a stand over hemp extracts in Germany after that country’s Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) last month declared CBD may not be sold in food.

Calling the declaration, published March 20 on BVL’s web site, “strange and incomprehensible,” the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA), rebutted the ruling in a sharp and detailed 10-page letter April 11.

“Consumer and employees of (EIHA) members… are confused. Some (EIHA) members… that legally produce and/or sell CBD-containing cannabis products for consumption are quasi-publicly classified in a sort of ‘illegal industry’ and discriminated against,” the letter said.

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 Aurora Cannabis Inc. (“Aurora” or the “Company”) (TSX: ACB) (NYSE: ACB) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) announced today that the Company has been selected by the German Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte BfArM (Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices) as one of three winners in the public tender to cultivate and distribute medical cannabis in Germany. The contract will be formalized at the earliest on April 17, 2019, pending the outcome of an appeal procedure on which a ruling is anticipated by April 10, 2019.

You've probably heard plenty about the launch of the Canadian recreational marijuana market. And you are likely up to speed on the rapid expansion of legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana in the U.S. But how much do you know about marijuana markets in Europe?

Cannabis market research company Brightfield Group released its European CBD and Cannabis Market 2019 Report on Tuesday. This report analyzed the cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabis markets in Europe and in key individual European countries. Here are 10 things you'll want to know about Europe's fast-growing marijuana market from Brightfield Group's new report.