Kaya takes a beating from Melissa
Published:Sunday | November 23, 2025 | 12:32 PM
Kaya Limited, operator of cannabis stores in Jamaica, reported strong financial gains for the September quarter.
But its next report will be coloured by Hurricane Melissa, which inflicted severe damage across the company’s operations, during the storm’s passage on October 28.
Kaya is part of NUGL Limited, which is listed on a North American exchange. The company operates marijuana retail outlets, while NUGL’s magazine markets the brand online.
“Kaya suffered major structural and agricultural losses across multiple facilities,” said Balram Vaswani, Kaya’s founder and CEO, in the company’s newly released September third quarter financial report, weeks after Melissa tore through Jamaica.
The combination of “agricultural loss, retail disruption, and infrastructure damage” has placed “immense pressure” on its supply chains, staffing, and revenue, said Kaya, which operates herbhouses in some of the areas most affected by the storm.
Vaswani said the company was working to get “power, water and connectivity” back to each store location.
The July-September quarter set a new record for revenue earned by Kaya. Sales in the three months climbed by one-third to US$1 million. Kaya also spun from a loss of US$112,600 in the 2024 period to positive net income of US$474,600 in the September 2025 period.
At Kaya’s Drax Hall location in the parish of St Ann, greenhouses, irrigation systems, electrical infrastructure, and drying facilities were destroyed, causing significant crop and equipment losses that halted production.
Reserve inventory of cannabis, extracts, and mushrooms will sustain fourth quarter supply under tripartite agreements with third-party buyers, the company said.
In Falmouth, the parish capital for Trelawny, the retail herbhouse suffered heavy roof and equipment damage, forcing a temporary suspension of operations, while in the Blue Mountain region, landslides and fallen trees damaged the Gap Café and blocked access, with unstable road conditions delaying recovery.
Together, these agricultural, retail, and tourism setbacks have strained Kaya’s supply chains, staffing, and revenue. The company has not offered an estimate of the damage from the Category 5 hurricane but intends to rebuild in phases.
New figures released this week by the World Bank put the estimates of the scale of destruction from Hurricane Melissa at around US$8.8 billion, which is more than two-fifths of the country’s economic output. That figure may rise as damage assessments and recovery efforts continue.