Reading Time: 3 minutes

Consolidating skincare line, plant-based therapies, farm tours and retail shops 

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaica’s leading vertically integrated wellness platform and medical cannabis company,  JACANA is transitioning into a Caribbean Wellness Platform after years of scattered growth.

This is being done by consolidating its skincare line, plant-based therapies, farm tours and retail shops in Jamaica into a single strategy for an “integrated wellness ecosystem.” While JACANA, which started as a medical cannabis company, has its primary historic farm and core botanical production in the mountains of Jamaica, the company has been expanding its footprint, recently launching a broader wellness platform to serve the wider Caribbean.

JACANA products and wellness lines are actively expanding into the Unites States and the United Kingdom markets. Executive Chairwoman, Alexandra Chong described the strategy as a bet on integration rather than any single product line. 

“It is a fully integrated wellness ecosystem where products become rituals, rituals become treatments, treatments become experiences, and experiences become lasting memories,” she remarked. Whether JACANA can compete with wellness tourism destinations that have decades of infrastructure and brand recognition behind them remains an open question. 

JACANA betting on global growth in Wellness Tourism

However, with a trillion-dollar market up for grabs and Caribbean tourism already a proven draw, JACANA is staking its claim early on cashing in on the global growth in wellness tourism. The company is betting on the further development of wellness tourism, which is projected to more than double to US$2.1 trillion by 2030. 

JACANA wants Jamaica and, by extension, the Caribbean more broadly to capture a meaningful share of this growth area, as a destination known for natural healing, not just beaches. Its 100-acre organic farm in the hills of St. Ann plays a crucial role, where JACANA grows medical cannabis and more than 60 Caribbean botanicals such as ginger, turmeric, leaf of life, aloe vera and black castor oil.

The company manufactures its products under organic, GACP (Good Agricultural and Collection Practices) and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices), which are strict, quality assurance standards used in the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries to ensure product safety, consistency, and traceability. JACANA has four business lines that feed into one another: a botanical skincare range of balms, oils and other personal care products; a therapeutic line covering medical cannabis, functional mushrooms and other plant medicines; farm tours, retreats and workshops held on-site. 

Focused on skincare segment right now 

This is in addition to apothecary shops designed around browsing and education rather than quick purchases. However, the Alerie Hull-Duhaney-led company is leaning hardest into the skincare segment right now.

Its Releaf Balm and body oils have become among its fastest-growing products and are already stocked in hotel spas across the region. JACANA is now pushing to place the line in more hotels and stores throughout the Caribbean, with its products already being sold through more than 110 hospitality and wellness brands such as Sandals, Marriott, Virgin, Rosewood, Auberge and Hard Rock.

Its guest experiences have won TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Award for three consecutive years. The company has partnerships in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands, St. Lucia and Barbados, and is now expanding into North American e-commerce and hospitality markets.

CEO, Hull-Duhaney, a chartered accountant by profession, leads a team of more than 90 people The company’s board and advisors include venture capitalist Bill Tai, an early investor in Zoom, Canva and Twitter; former Microsoft CMO, Mich Mathews Spradlin; Will Muecke, formerly Goldman Sachs’ global head of healthcare investment banking; and former Coca-Cola executive Robert Leechman.