This article is for operators who already hold Thai licences to export cannabis flower and who have a laboratory report that passed every test. At that point two problems are still left. First, the buyer’s payment has to reach Thailand through banks that avoid this sector. Second, the goods have to reach the buyer without passing through a country that would treat them as illegal drugs.
Both problems can be solved. Most exporters try to solve them too late, after the contract is signed. Choose the invoice currency and the trade terms before you quote a price. These two choices decide which banks and which countries the deal will pass through.
This Part 1 covers the money side: banks, currency, Thai exchange-control rules and payment methods. Part 2 covers the movement of goods: transit countries, trade terms and the document errors that get shipments detained.
The Thai legal basis
Cannabis flower is a controlled herb under the Notification of the Ministry of Public Health Re: Controlled Herbs (Cannabis), B.E. 2568. This notification was issued under the Thai Traditional Medicine Protection Act B.E. 2542 and has been in force since 26 June 2025. You need a permit to export flower. Exported flower must come from a cultivation site certified under GACP (Good Agricultural and Collection Practice, the quality standard for growing and harvesting medicinal plants).
The Cannabis Control Act is still only a draft. The Cabinet approved the draft on 22 September 2026 and sent it to the House of Representatives. It is not law yet.
Everything below assumes your full set of licences is already in place, from the farm licence to the export permit. The forum’s export glossary explains the export terms used in this article.
Translator’s note: Two newer rules matter before you approach any buyer. The Ministerial Regulation on Controlled Herbs (No. 2) B.E. 2569 has been in force since 30 April 2026. It tightened the licence criteria for cannabis flower (what changed in April 2026). Check that your licence still meets the current criteria before you quote an overseas buyer. A buyer’s bank or regulator may ask for proof.
Translator’s note: Thailand prohibits advertising and online sale of cannabis flower. The public sources checked for this article do not say whether this ban also covers business-to-business export offers posted online. Until that is clear, keep flower export offers out of public posts, including posts on this forum. The forum rules are in what you can and cannot post on Asiannabis.
1. Thai banks and the cannabis sector
The public sources checked for this article contain no circular on cannabis-sector banking from the Bank of Thailand (Thailand’s central bank). They also contain none from AMLO, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (ปปง.). Thailand has nothing like the US guidance on marijuana businesses from FinCEN. FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) is the US Treasury office that works against money laundering.
Instead, each bank has its own internal risk policy, and the policies all point the same way. In 2025 the law firm ILAWASIA published “In-depth analysis of the risk of doing cannabis business in Thailand and strategies for mitigation”. It appeared on Legal 500, a website that ranks law firms and publishes their articles. The analysis calls cannabis a “no-bank” sector.
According to that analysis, commercial banks typically refuse loans, credit lines and other financing to cannabis operators. Their first reason is compliance, meaning the checks a bank must run so that it does not handle criminal money. Their second reason is the bank’s reputation.
This matters for your planning. You can read a published rule and follow it. An internal bank policy is not published, so you can only learn it by asking. The bank can also change it without notice.
What to do: Before you sign your first export buyer, meet your bank’s business relationship officer. Ask in writing whether the bank will accept export proceeds from licensed cannabis flower sales. The purpose is to learn the bank’s position while no money is moving. You do not want to learn it when a payment is already stuck.
Translator’s note: Bring a complete file to that meeting. Include company documents, cultivation and export licences, the GACP certificate, the laboratory report and a draft contract. The bank’s compliance team can then review your business once, at a time you choose, instead of during a live transfer.
2. Invoice currency: the choice that changes your risk the most
The situation in the United States as of October 2026. It changes often, so check the current status before relying on it.
US federal law sorts drugs into categories called “schedules”. Schedule I is the strictest: the law treats these drugs as having no accepted medical use. Schedule III allows medical use under lighter controls.
In December 2025 an executive order (a directive from the US President) directed that marijuana be moved to a less strict schedule. After the order, the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration) moved two groups to Schedule III. The first is marijuana in products approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration). The second is medical marijuana licensed by a US state.
The DEA’s final order on this was published in the Federal Register, the US government’s official journal, on 28 April 2026. All other marijuana is still in Schedule I. A DEA administrative hearing on wider rescheduling took place in mid-2026. On 29 September 2026 the judge paused the proceedings, and no decision has been made.
The banking problem is the same under either schedule. Without DEA registration, it is still a US federal crime to make, import or distribute cannabis. A US bank may therefore treat cannabis money as possible criminal proceeds under money-laundering law.
Why this affects a Thai exporter. Most US dollar transfers pass through a US correspondent bank. A correspondent bank is a bank that clears dollar payments for foreign banks that cannot clear dollars themselves. So a payment from a German importer to a Thai exporter can still pass through a US bank, even with no American party in the deal.
Some dollar payments clear outside the US. One example is USD CHATS, Hong Kong’s system for clearing US dollar payments. But offshore clearing banks run their own sanctions checks and AML (anti-money-laundering) checks.
If you invoice in US dollars, plan for three possible outcomes:
- the payment is frozen, or sent back while it is in transit;
- a bank files a suspicious activity report, which is a confidential report to the authorities about a transaction that looks unusual;
- your own bank’s compliance team finds out what sector you are in at a time it chooses, not at a time you prepared for.
How strong is the evidence? The mechanism comes from standard correspondent-banking law. However, the public sources checked for this article show no US enforcement action against a correspondent bank over a legal-cannabis payment between two non-US parties. This is a well-founded risk built into how the system works, not a documented case.
How to reduce it: invoice and settle in EUR, AUD, CHF or THB instead of USD. This lowers the risk but does not remove it. European and Australian banks run their own AML checks. The Thai bank that receives the money also reviews the transaction.
It also costs money. A non-USD invoice brings currency conversion costs. It may also need hedging, which is a contract that fixes the exchange rate in advance to protect you from rate changes.
This article names no bank or payment provider as accepting cannabis-related payments. No credible source says that any does. Someone may tell you informally that a certain bank “accepts cannabis money”. Treat that as a risk, not a solution, because the bank has never confirmed it.
What to do: Choose the invoice currency before you quote a price. Ask your bank what it costs to convert EUR, AUD and CHF into baht, and include that cost in your price. The purpose is to keep US correspondent banks out of the payment path without losing your margin.
Translator’s note: A baht invoice moves the conversion cost to the buyer. A EUR or AUD invoice keeps that cost with you, but a buyer in Europe or Australia may find it easier to pay. Whichever you choose, write the currency into both the quotation and the contract. This stops a buyer from paying in USD out of habit.
3. Thailand’s exchange-control rules: the threshold rose tenfold in January 2026
Thai exchange-control rules set when foreign-currency income must be brought back into Thailand (“repatriated”). Thai residents below a certain threshold are exempt. In January 2026 that threshold rose from “less than USD 1 million” to “less than USD 10 million”:
- Export proceeds: Notification of the Ministry of Finance on Exchange Control (No. 11), in force 20 January 2026.
- Other foreign-sourced funds: Notice of the Competent Officer re: Rules and Practices regarding Currency Exchange (No. 35), in force 27 January 2026.
The source is the international law firm Baker McKenzie, in “Thailand: Repatriation Exemption for Foreign-Sourced Funds”, 18 February 2026 (Thailand: Repatriation Exemption for Foreign-Sourced Funds | Insight | Baker McKenzie). The volume and publication date in the Royal Gazette (Thailand’s official journal of laws) could not be independently confirmed for this article.
So ask your authorised bank for the text as published in the Gazette. An authorised bank is a bank licensed by the Bank of Thailand to deal in foreign exchange. Below the threshold, Thai residents may keep funds abroad and use them there without approval.
Where the requirement applies, you must bring the proceeds back within 360 days of the export date. You must then do one of two things with the money. You can sell it to an authorised bank. You can also deposit it in a foreign currency deposit (FCD) account at an authorised bank.
In practice, a different rule will affect you first. For transactions of USD 200,000 or more, you must give supporting documents to the authorised bank. The exception is when the bank has already finished its know-your-business checks on you. These checks are the bank’s review of what your company does and who owns it. Source: Bank of Thailand, “Exchange Control Regulation” (Exchange Control Regulation).
The document check is the moment a compliance officer reads your product description. Plan that conversation early and have the documents ready. Do not let your first large transfer be what starts it.
A warning about the official web page. When this article was prepared, the same Bank of Thailand page was checked in September and October 2026. Both times it still showed the old USD 1 million figure. Cite the two notifications above and confirm the figure with your bank. Do not rely on the web page.
What to do: Before your first shipment, ask your authorised bank for two things. The first is the text of both notifications as published in the Gazette. The second is the bank’s list of supporting documents for transfers of USD 200,000 or more. Send those documents and your licences before the first payment arrives. The purpose is to finish the bank’s checks while no money is waiting.
4. Payment methods, and why a letter of credit rarely helps
Several of these methods follow rules written by the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), the body that publishes the standard rules for world trade.
| Method | How it works | Exporter’s position | Realistic availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance payment | The buyer pays before you ship | Strongest for the exporter | The usual practice in this sector |
| Letter of credit (under UCP 600, the ICC rules for letters of credit) | The buyer’s bank promises to pay when you present the agreed shipping documents | Bank-backed, but banks check legality as well as documents | Often refused; assume it is unavailable unless a bank confirms in writing |
| Documentary collection, documents against payment (D/P) | Banks hand the shipping documents to the buyer only when the buyer pays | No payment guarantee; goods can sit unclaimed | Cheap, but see the warning below |
| Documents against acceptance (D/A) | The buyer receives the documents by signing a promise to pay later | You give credit on a signature | Avoid |
| Open account | You ship first and the buyer pays later on agreed terms | You carry the full credit risk | Only for established buyers |
| Escrow | A neutral third party holds the money until agreed conditions are met | A neutral holder of the funds | The escrow agent faces the same sector risk as a bank |
Why a letter of credit is not as safe as it looks. In principle, a letter of credit is independent of the sales contract. The bank pays against documents and does not judge the deal itself (the “autonomy principle”). In practice, this independence is not absolute. A bank’s sanctions and AML duties sit outside it. An issuing or confirming bank can refuse on compliance grounds even when your documents are correct.
A specific warning on documentary collection. With ordinary cargo, if the buyer walks away, you can sell the goods to someone else locally. A controlled consignment that needs a licence cannot be resold this way. No local buyer may lawfully take it. It stays “in bond”, held in a customs-controlled warehouse without being cleared, while storage costs keep growing.
Translator’s note: Many port and airport warehouses in Southeast Asia are hot and humid. Dried flower that sits for weeks in an uncooled bonded warehouse can lose quality even if it is later released (see storage: humidity, light, oxygen and shelf life). Ask your freight forwarder whether held cargo would go into temperature-controlled storage. Also agree in the contract who pays storage costs if the goods are held.
For a first shipment, a split advance payment usually works best:
- a deposit when the contract is signed. This covers your costs if the buyer pulls out before shipping.
- the balance paid against scanned shipping documents and the endorsed export authorisation. The buyer pays once they can see the goods have legally left Thailand. You never ship the full value without money in hand.
- payment in a non-USD currency. This keeps US correspondent banks out of the payment path (see section 2).
- the buyer clearly named as importer of record. The importer of record is the party legally responsible for clearing the goods into the destination country. Only the buyer can hold the import certificate (Part 2 explains this).
What to do: Write these four points into your first export contract before you agree the price. The purpose is to limit how much money you can lose if the buyer, a bank or a customs authority stops the deal.
Has a payment for an export ever gone wrong for you? Examples include a refused wire, a frozen payment or a closed account. The risks above come from the rules, not from real case files. One real account would be worth more than this whole list. Please share it, or ask your questions, below this topic.
This article is reference information for readers operating legally in their own jurisdictions. It is not legal, banking, tax, customs or financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation about any bank, payment method or route. Exchange-control thresholds, US drug scheduling, sanctions positions and narcotics law change often. At least one official source consulted was out of date when this article was written. Before you ship or invoice, check every figure with your authorised bank, your freight forwarder and a qualified lawyer.
References
- ILAWASIA, “In-depth analysis of the risk of doing cannabis business in Thailand and strategies for mitigation”, Legal 500, 2025: https://www.legal500.com/developments/thought-leadership/in-depth-analysis-of-the-risk-of-doing-cannabis-business-in-thailand-and-strategies-for-mitigation/
- Baker McKenzie, “Thailand: Repatriation Exemption for Foreign-Sourced Funds”, 18 February 2026: Thailand: Repatriation Exemption for Foreign-Sourced Funds | Insight | Baker McKenzie
- Bank of Thailand, “Exchange Control Regulation”: Exchange Control Regulation
- Notification of the Ministry of Finance on Exchange Control (No. 11), in force 20 January 2026.
- Notice of the Competent Officer re: Rules and Practices regarding Currency Exchange (No. 35), in force 27 January 2026.
- US Drug Enforcement Administration, final rescheduling order, Federal Register, 28 April 2026.
- International Chamber of Commerce, Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP 600).
Continued in Part 2: Getting a Licensed Cannabis Export from Thailand to the Buyer: Transit Countries, Trade Terms and the Documents (Part 2 of 2)