Cannabis industry on a $10b high despite Melissa
Published:Wednesday | April 22, 2026 | 12:06 AM
Jamaica’s legal cannabis industry was valued at US$63 million, or more than J$10 billion, in 2025, up nearly two-thirds higher year-on-year, according to the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), which regulates the legal sector.
The CLA’s figure reflects storm recovery of the eight-week cultivation cycle of the crop, Along with the value of its trade across retail, wholesale, businesses, and government fees, and taxes. The figure excludes illegal cannabis and private cultivation.
Based on the figure, it puts the trade from the sector in the realm of the export earnings from the largest non-traditional crops of yam and coffee combined.
CLA chief executive officer Farrah Blake, in a written response to questions from the Financial Gleaner, stated that the “value of the industry” in 2024 was US$38.9 million (J$6.2 billion) and in “2025 – US$63.5 million”, or about J$10 billion. The CLA’s figures, which were compiled in-house, represent a 63 per cent increase over the previous year, though the Financial Gleaner was unable to determine whether the valuation was conducted in-house or by an external consulting firm, nor the methodology used to arrive at the figures.
In 2025 the sector made four exports of “value-added ganja products”, compared with none in 2024, according to Blake. The dollar value of those exports could not be specified to print, but the shipments were comprised of oils, balms, and lotions.
Land under legal cultivation marginally increased from 14.2 hectares (35.1 acres) in 2024 to 15.4 hectares (38.1 acres) in 2025, a rise of 8.5 per cent.
Total production of legal ganja and its by-products – including buds, oil, keif and hash – reached 13,136 kilogrammes in 2025, up 5,781 kilogrammes, or 44 per cent, over the 7,355.4 kilogrammes produced in 2024.
“The CLA has issued close to 200 licences and seeks to continuously improve on its operational processes with a view to shorten the application/approval processes,” Blake said last week at the launch of the CLA Medical Cannabis Special Permit Programme.
It includes measures to reduce barriers to entry into the cannabis industry, particularly for small-scale and traditional ganja growers, who were previously prosecuted for cultivation and possession.
Minister of State Delano Seiveright said that the amendments to facilitate greater participation in the sector would “provide Jamaicans with alternative and sustainable avenues for enterprise beyond traditional industries”. It would also support the development of “emerging roles within the cannabis value chain, including cultivation specialists, trimmers, packagers, extraction technicians, and other key professionals”, he said.
NATURE OF CROP
The production gains were mirrored at the company level. Balram ‘Bali’ Vaswani, head of the Kaya Group – which operates four cannabis dispensaries and trades on the US OTC market as NUGL – said production on Kaya’s farm was also up by double-digit amounts in 2025 over 2024. Kaya posted annual revenue of US$3.45 million (J$550 million) for its December year end, up 16 per cent over the prior year, according to the company’s financial filings.
“Our production would have been up 55 per cent if not for Hurricane Melissa, in which we lost six greenhouses but were able to keep all younger plants inside, so our recovery and preservation of genetics were intact. We have already rebuilt seven greenhouses and based on our continued expansion, we are on track for a much stronger 2026,” Vaswani said.
He suggested the industry’s resilience may owe partly to the nature of the crop. Ganja is a short-term crop of six to eight weeks, much of it grown in the hot summer months, and an increasing share is cultivated in greenhouses.
“If you look at how weather patterns have changed over the years, it’s impossible for us to control our destiny if we don’t grow a majority of our weed in greenhouses,” Vaswani said.
He noted that heavy rain between weeks five and six of the growing cycle can deteriorate crop quality. The main variety grown in Jamaica is Indica, which takes six weeks, while Sativa, which is harder to grow, takes eight weeks.
Blake, the chief regulator of the sector, added that the word ‘enforcement’ has been removed from the agency’s operational language and replaced with ‘compliance’, reflecting a policy directive from the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce towards business facilitation. Blake said the approach had produced an average compliance rate of 80 per cent, outside of extraordinary situations such as natural disasters. Not everyone in government received that memo.
“We will continue to enforce strong regulatory oversight to prevent misuse, protect consumers, and uphold the rule of law,” said Seiveright.