Editorial | Nutraceuticals and growth

A decade ago there was a buzz in Jamaica around nutraceuticals. The Portia Simpson Miller administration even declared the launch of a nutraceutical industry.

During that period, personal use of ganja was decriminalised and there was talk of unleashing research into, and development of products for, the medical use of marijuana, building on the 1970s work of the likes of Lockhart and West.

Jamaica’s wide range of endemic flora would be exploited for their medicinal properties in support of general good health to keep at bay a range of diseases.

There has indeed been the launch of a handful of new players and the expansion of existing ones in the industry. Research has also continued at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) into the medical/health efficacy of Jamaica’s plants and foods. But the promised big domestic take-off of nutraceuticals hasn’t happened.

There has been no significant analysis of case studies of why it hasn’t happened, but this newspaper believes that, for the most part, the explanation is simple: talk didn’t translate to a coordinated, strategic programme that was underpinned by clear government policy. It was probably thought that having identified potential niches the market would do the rest.

The Gleaner does not believe it to be too late for an evaluation of the past strategy to identify points of weakness, or for Jamaica to have another go at developing a nutraceutical industry, especially in the context of what appears to be an emerging appetite for new approaches for economic development and growth.

To be clear, this newspaper believes, as we have often repeated, that macroeconomic stability, such as Jamaica has achieved over the past dozen years, is sine qua non for sustained and robust expansion of GDP. But as Prime Minister Andrew Holness recently acknowledged, macroeconomic stability is neither an end in itself nor sufficient condition for significant growth. Enjoying macroeconomic stability won’t, without more, fundamentally change Jamaica’s longstanding condition of low wages, low technology, low value-added and puny growth.

READILY ACCESSIBLE DATA

Indeed, while Jamaica enjoys a historic low unemployment rate of 3.6 per cent, the economy has struggled to grow, hardly, except for the post-pandemic recovery period, getting beyond two per cent. In fact, growth will be negative this year. The data, in part, highlight the island’s slouching performance in both labour and factor productivity.

Against this backdrop, policymakers and other stakeholders should share an interest in devising ways to lift Jamaica out of its growth and development funk, and in identifying industries that can help to do so. In the event, The Gleaner does not believe people were wrong about nutraceuticals. Everything suggests that the industry should be given another shot.

There is little readily accessible data on either the value of Jamaica’s nutraceutical industry, or of the import bill for such products. What is known, though, is that although less than half the size of the global pharmaceutical industry, nutraceuticals are a huge business, estimated to have reached US$420 billion in 2023, having grown by over nine-and-a-half per cent. Its value is expected to reach around US$870 billion by the mid 2030s.

Higher disposable incomes, especially in developed countries, combined with ageing populations, increasing awareness of issues of wellness and an embrace of natural remedies and foods are helping to spur this growth.

While dietary supplements, accounting for 35 per cent of the industry’s sales, is huge, what is often overlooked is the functional foods component – the natural foods consumed for their perceived health benefits. That is close to half of the business.

NECESSARY CONSENSUS

The bottom line: Jamaica, with its wide range of plants that are said to have medicinal value and an array of potential superfoods, doesn’t need a big chunk of the market to be successful. Thin slices would do.

But getting these slices requires a plan. For example, the research efforts at UWI, Mona, and NCU have to be underpinned by product development and marketing support from the private sector, and backed by government policy.

Mr Holness spoke to some of these issues with his promise, for instance, to provide tax breaks for research and development and his intention to lessen public sector bureaucracy.

These things, however, can’t take place in silos, separated from each other. Analyses by, say, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, or concepts on innovation from the Mona Institute of Business, or new ways developed by perhaps a University of Technology researcher for farmers to practically use their mobile phones to track crops, have to coalesce into a larger, holistic strategy. An industrial policy.

The Gleaner repeats its view that the National Partnership Council, where all stakeholders already work to thrash out thorny societal issues, is an ideal body to coordinate these efforts and reach the necessary consensus on an industrial policy.

With respect to advancing the Jamaican nutraceutical industry, there is already a foundation which can be built on. The National Council on Science did initial work. It is now to revive and update these efforts and build on the foundation.