From Spain, The Planet Awaits

World Breeders, a cannabis seed company with who is making good on its
promise to export seeds worldwide, has three founders, and it’s taken them
all to shape the trajectory they have now—from working in cannabis on the
“underground side,” as co-director Gorka Cid Luaces says, to an enterprise
with operations on three continents and the momentum to fulfill their
ambitions.

Jon Urriola Rementeria—responsible for seed development, genetics and
research—was growing tomatoes for Spanish supermarkets before he switched
to *hierba* with the emergence of the first “cannabis associations” in the
País Vasco, Spain’s northeast Basque Country. Leandro García Rodriguez
handles client and concept development, while Cid Luaces is responsible for
overall management of the company. García Rodriguez is originally from
Seville, while Rementeria and Cid Luaces are native to the Basque Country.
[image: World Breeders cannabis seeds]World Breeders claims to have
dedicated itself to selecting and developing its own genetics with
meticulous attention to details.

Rementeria and Cid Luaces first came together in GreenFarm Éibar, which was
among the first cannabis associations in Euskadi, as the País Vasco is
known in the Basque language. They produced flower for the association in a
mixed greenhouse and outdoor operation, with the local police informed.

“The experience with GreenFarm marked our entry into the cannabis
industry,” Cid says. “It was a highly rewarding stage, yet also one filled
with tension. Working constantly on the edge of legality takes a heavy
psychological toll.”

GreenFarm was a member organization of the Federation of Cannabis User
Associations of Euskadi (EUSFAC) which coordinates rules and standards for
a sector operating in a kind of legal gray area. These regulations allowed
private cultivation for the associations but limited members to two grams
per day, to be consumed on club premises. Several associations closed
during the pandemic in 2020, as these restrictions became untenable, and
the sector never fully recovered. Associations continue to thrive in the
regions of Catalonia and Andalusia, but regional authorities in País Vasco
cracked down, with some clubs busted and herb confiscated.
[image: World Breeders Cannabis Cultivation]

The GreenFarm veterans moved into the commercial space, anticipating an
expanding market for the recreational side as policy in several European
countries liberalized. World Breeders was registered as a seed company in
the Czech Republic in 2019, though they had already been working with third
partner García Rodriguez from Medical Weed Sevilla, one of the first
associations in Andalusia’s southern region, for some time with different
companies.

Seeking a suitable country for production, the trio settled on the rising
industry player of Colombia. Cannabis had been decriminalized there since
1994 and medical marijuana was legalized in December 2015 by decree of
then-president Juan Manuel Santos—who would the following year win the
Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating peace with the guerillas. Along with the
historic peace deal in 2016, Colombia’s Congress that year approved
commercial cannabis cultivation under government license.

“We knew we wanted to continue working in the cannabis industry—it’s our
passion, and our professional path,” Cid says. “But we were equally clear
that we wanted to do it within a fully legal framework. Colombia offered
the chance to operate under official licenses, with a transparent
regulatory environment and the ability to develop genetics and production
at scale, without legal uncertainty. That’s why we took the leap and
established our operations there.”

In 2020, World Breeders set up its mixed indoor/greenhouse production
facility in Antioquia in the northwest region of the country. Their first
greenhouses were in Guarne, a charming mountain town in the Andes.
Production began in January 2021 and licensed export of seed to Spain began
that year.

The seed stock they’d been working with initially had difficulties
adjusting to higher altitude and new, more acidic soil and water
conditions. Operations later moved to Ebéjico, on the outskirts of the
Medellín metropolitan area, where the altitude is lower and the climate
warmer.
[image: World Breeders growing cannabis in Colombia]Based in Colombia since
2020, World Breeders’ new environment creates exceptional photoperiods: 12
hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness per day. “It’s ideal for complex
terpene profiles,” says co-founder Gorka Cid Luaces.

Conditions here, as it turns out, are exceptional. The light offers perfect
photoperiods: about 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness per day.
And the altitude of some 1,400 meters above sea level, Cid describes as
“ideal for complex terpene profiles.”

“Over the years, we have dedicated ourselves to selecting and developing
our own genetics with meticulous attention to details,” their website
boasts.

The company, a seed bank marketing its genetic creations to specialty
growers, currently offers nine strains, with names including Clementine
Slush, Fizzy Gum and Pink Truffle. Cid takes pride in the descriptive
accuracy of these appellations. “If we say it tastes like clementine, it
really tastes like clementine,” he assures.

A recent addition is La Hokuzan, developed in cooperation with
Barcelona-based Hidden Group Genetics. The Catalan group had bred its own
indica-heavy hybrid Hokuzai, which World Breeders crossed with their own
Fizzy Gum for a more “sparkling and fruity” feel.

Just coming online is Pilot, developed in conjunction with Spanish rapper
JC Reyes, combining his favorite traits—a three-way cross of Pink
Watermelon x Jokerz x WB Bubba.

World Breeders is also currently working with growers in the Rif Mountains
of Morocco to develop a line of triploid seeds. Triploid strains have three
sets of chromosomes, as opposed to the traditional diploid varieties with
two sets—one from each parent plant. They typically don’t collect pollen
and therefore don’t produce seeds. (Most of the bananas we eat are
triploid, as well as seedless watermelons.) This is important for cannabis,
because a female plant that doesn’t get fertilized will keep secreting
resin indefinitely throughout the growing season, even if there are male
plants in the vicinity. A triploid line could be a breakthrough for the
centuries-old tradition of hashish production in the Rif, and a boon to
growers everywhere.

“We’re confident that this new line will mark a before-and-after in the
genetic development of cannabis, positioning World Breeders as a benchmark
for innovation and quality in the sector,” Cid predicts.

But expanding markets in Europe represent the real opportunity on the
imminent horizon, Cid says, pointing to recent moves toward permitting
adult-use cultivation in Portugal and Germany. “What began as a dream of
the World Breeders team is now a consolidated reality,” he says.

*This story was originally published in issue 52 of the print edition of
Cannabis Now.*

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