The advertising professional Luiz Borsato found relief from constant back pain in cannabis. And in search of more economical and effective ways for their treatment, they sought judicial authorization to produce their own medicine. However, at the beginning of the planting practice, he lacked quality and provenance seeds, with improved genetics that would guarantee the cannabinoids he needed. Ali was born at Netseedswww.netseeds.shop), a seed marketplace dedicated to self-cultivators in Brazil, a market that is still little known, but which already generates millions with the sale of products for growing cannabis in patients' homes.
Owner of an advertising agency in the interior of São Paulo with 23 years of activity, important clients in areas such as agribusiness and education and annual revenue of around R$50 million, Borsato ran both businesses in parallel for some time but soon decided to follow his instinct and dedicate himself entirely to providing medicinal treatment with cannabis for Brazilians.
“In Brazil, we represent 9 seed brands from some of the main genetic banks in the United States, the Netherlands and Spain, where the world’s leading breeders are located today. Each plant has its own improved characteristics, both in terms of flowering and production, and the content of therapeutic substances,” explains the businessman.
Your audience in the marketplace are the over 5,000 cultivators who, like him, have judicial authorization to cultivate in Brazil. "Our motto is 'cultivating is for everyone,' and with that we want to show that those who use cannabinoid medicine have the freedom to grow their own medicine, with quality, safely and legally," explains Borsato.
Before founding Netseeds in May 2024, the entrepreneur was already investing in the international cannabis market, holding equity stakes in sector companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States and Canada. Faced with the opportunity to establish itself in Spain, a country without restrictions and with legal security for the legal cannabis market, Borsato chose to keep its operations outside the country and serve the Brazilian market and neighboring Latin American countries directly from Barcelona.
In addition to serving patients with self-cultivation, Borsato maintains dialogues with patient associations and research institutions in Brazil, which face challenges in obtaining traceable and high-quality genetic material. "Brazilian researchers are often limited to material seized by authorities, without reliable genetic information, which affects scientific development and delays the discovery of new treatment possibilities with the plant. For patient associations, quality genetics represents the opportunity to increase productivity and efficiency," observes Borsato.
The global demand for medicinal cannabis seeds reached US$ 404.62 million in 2023. By 2031, the projected revenue is US$ 1.212 billion, with an average annual growth of 14.7%. Borsato highlights Brazil's potential to become a leader in this sector and also the largest producer of seeds for cannabis cultivation, similar to other agricultural crops. "Paraguay, neighboring Brazil, already exports industrial hemp and cannabis flowers for various purposes. Our initial focus at Netseeds is to serve medicinal patients, but we are attentive to the development of the cannabis market in Brazil and other potential uses, including the development of national genetics and the commercialization of plant clones, a market that already exists in the United States and Europe," concludes the entrepreneur.
