Until recently, the municipality of Garray (Soria) boasted of being home to "the largest rose greenhouse in Europe." However, the collapse of Aleia Roses, the company that operated those fourteen hectares of flowers, followed by bankruptcy proceedings that jeopardized more than two hundred workers. At that point, a year ago, a new firm, Ondara, acquired the entire company. Although initially seeking to combine roses with other crops, between February and April, it decided to uproot the rose bushes to focus on "the new project": medicinal cannabis. This August, they received a license from the Spanish Medicines Agency (AEMPS) to cultivate three hectares.
"At first, the idea was to make roses compatible with cannabis and other crops, but we realized it was crazy," explains Sara Lamata, spokesperson for the Ondara company. In Spain, they compete with only nine other companies that have also received approval to cultivate for medical or scientific purposes. However, they assure that if they have learned anything from their predecessor's failure, it is not to try to spread themselves too thin. That's why it's preferable to take a risk with a market that they and Full Moon, the US fund to which the company belongs, already know well. Their potential clients could be pharmaceutical companies in Germany or the United Kingdom. If things go well, they will try to expand, but for now, the remaining 11 hectares of greenhouse will only receive cleaning and maintenance. "Using them all for cannabis cultivation could mean doubling all of Europe's production," estimates Lamata.
The Ondara company applied for the license in November of last year, but bureaucratic processes meant it didn't receive it until now, after an audit and demonstrating its ability to adapt to the regulations, as well as a multi-stage process. To prepare for this preliminary stage, around 30 people were hired at the office. The rest remain on hold, on furlough leave. The UGT union confirms that prior to the transfer of the business, there was a collective redundancy plan affecting "around 25 people," but most are holding on. "There was a lot of concern on the part of the workers until the permits arrived.""They're calmer now, although if the process drags on, the nerves will return," he predicts.
And although the timeline is unclear, by December, when the ERTE expires, both the company and unions hope that all Aleia workers will have been able to gradually return to the greenhouses, after completing specialized training courses.
The mayor of Garray, María José Jiménez Las Heras, appears calm and confident. She asserts that there is no unemployment in the Soria municipality of just over 700 inhabitants. There are factories that produce animal feed, sausages, and carpentry products. Although "there are very few people from the municipality working there," Aleia's drive is renewed without stigma with Ondara. "People don't care about the product; what really matters is the jobs.""Garray used to be a benchmark in roses, and now he will be a benchmark in medicinal cannabis," he concludes.
Growers wanted
Of course, the leap from watering varieties like the 'Red Naomi' rose to tending marijuana buds requires professional retraining: Ondara is looking for 'growers.' This term, in English, designates gardeners who must understand "the needs of the plant," something that could open the door to looking outside the country, given the scarcity of this type of career in the Spanish legal system.
Otherwise, the professional profiles are not that far removed from what Aleia needed, with technical positions related to irrigation or coordination. Workers like Beatriz Ángela Cabeza, 45, from Soria, one of the first women to join Aleia, are eyeing these changes. She started as a farmhand in the greenhouse in 2016 and later moved to the packaging department, where she sorted flowers based on their quality. Although her job was "really beautiful" and what the new position will bring is still uncertain, she also admits that she's looking forward to it, hoping to continue in Soria with a permanent contract. "I'm looking forward to starting a new project, hoping for it to prosper and last more than four years," she says.
From now on, a new commercial dream is born in Garray. Only this time it won't be wrapped in a rose-colored fragrance, but rather, it's set to transform the most widely consumed drug on the planet into a flagship of the international pharmaceutical industry.
What exactly will be extracted?
Garray's greenhouses will focus their production on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a component of marijuana. Its cultivation and processing requires a license because, unlike cannabidiol (CBD), which is legal for external use in Spain, THC is the substance that "gets you high," but also the one with the greatest therapeutic properties.
If consumed in excess, it can cause memory or mood disturbances, and it also has therapeutic effects that are a great help for people with chronic illnesses, such as Parkinson's or some types of cancer, according to the Canna Foundation.
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