Tobacco Asia

60 tobaccoasia Issue 1, 2025 January / February By Thomas Schmid Laos' very first commercial tobacco growing company, Bro Asia Lao, had barely gone into full-scale op- eration when company director and local businesswoman Nousavanh Khounmeuang and her Singapore- based investors were already eyeing the next project. It would be a rather sensational one, too. The plan was to establish a cannabis-growing business with full support from the Lao government. To achieve that, Nousavanh and her partners drew on the strong government ties that local herbal pharmaceuticals firm LTV (see side bar) had forged over the past decades. LTV itself had already been in negotiations with the authorities over a possible medical cannabis venture at that time, though talks had not made any real progress. When LTV's then-c.e.o. retired, Nousavanh assumed the position as a sort of informal acting chief executive. After consulting with her Singaporean investors, it was then decided to pick up the stalled cannabis business cue again. Lengthy negotiations finally bear fruit "We worked out an enormously comprehensive business plan: how we would set up the farm, from where we'd import the seeds, the hardware and infrastructure installations, how we'd grow cannabis, how we would market the produce, and much, much more," Nousavanh recalled. "Of course we also had to ensure to let the government know how Laos could benefit from a business like that." Once LTV intro- duced Bro Asia Lao as their joint venture partner to the authorities, particularly the Ministry of Public Health, first talks kicked off in June 2023. But Laos is a slow country. Things take time there. Laos Initiates Groundbreaking Cannabis Pilot Project Government support may lead to broader decriminalization before long. Inside view of the growing facility. Credit: LTV Sole Co. Ltd.

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