What Is GACP? A Plain-Language Guide for Thai Herb Farms
If you grow medicinal herbs or medical cannabis in Thailand, "GACP" is the word that decides your farm's future. This guide explains what it is, why it matters, and what to prepare β written by a grower, not a consultant.
What GACP stands for
GACP means Good Agricultural and Collection Practices β a framework based on WHO guidelines for cultivating and harvesting medicinal plants. In Thailand, the certifying authority is the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine (DTAM).
A common misunderstanding: GACP is not a cannabis-only standard. It applies to all Thai medicinal plants β kratom, turmeric, andrographis and more. Cannabis is simply the crop that made the standard commercially unavoidable.
Why GACP became urgent in 2025
The June 2025 ministerial notification moved cannabis to a medical-justification model. The supply-chain consequence: dispensaries and clinics must source flower exclusively from GACP-certified farms.
The numbers tell the story. As of mid-2026 there were roughly 11,814 licensed cannabis operators in Thailand but only 266 GACP-certified farms. Most licensed growers cannot legally sell into the medical market until they certify β GACP is now the ticket to the market, not a nice-to-have.
What the certification covers
DTAM's assessment looks at the whole operation. The main areas:
- Site β water source, growing media, access control and security
- Inputs β fertilizers and pest-control products from approved lists, with records of who applied what, when, and at what rate
- Personnel β training, hygiene, and clearly assigned responsibility
- Cultivation & harvest process β written SOPs that are actually followed
- Post-harvest β drying, storage, and environmental control
- Documentation β the heart of it all: continuous, traceable records retained for 5β10 years
What consultants rarely say out loud: GACP is a documentation problem
Most farms already grow well. What fails audits is not plant quality β it's records with gaps, records that can't be traced, or entries nobody can attribute to a person. The certificate is valid for 3 years with annual compliance audits, so record-keeping is not a one-time sprint before inspection; it's a system that has to run every day.
If it wasn't written down, it didn't happen. That is every auditor's operating principle.
The good news: documentation is exactly what software automates. Sensors log the environment continuously, input records attach to batches, and the inspection dossier prints in one click.
Where to start
Three first steps: (1) read the latest GACP requirements from DTAM and verify the process with them directly, (2) start logging environment and inputs today β auditors want history, not plans, and (3) get your core SOPs written. Continue with: The documents every GACP audit demands and How GACP certification works, step by step.
Note: this article is general information from grower experience, not legal advice. Verify current requirements with DTAM.