KINGSTON, Jamaica — Chairman of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association (JCEA), Norman Grant is appealing for the Ministry of Agriculture to immediately trigger its Crop Restoration and Establishment Programme (CREP) valuing at least $1 billion over the next four years.

The programme is slated to provide seedlings, fertilisers, chemicals, and other inputs to Jamaican coffee farmers, to resuscitate the industry by assisting farmers to help them recover from the September/October rains and Hurricane Beryl damage which saw a decline of 61,000 boxes or 21 per cent, from the recently-concluded 2023-2024 crop year. This reflects a production of 224,000 boxes of Jamaican Blue Mountain cherry berry, compared to the prior year, 2022-2023 when 288,000 boxes of cherry berry were produced.

In his International Coffee Day Message for 2024, Grant, who is also the chief executive officer and managing director of the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, noted that the production dip comes as the coffee sector was on an upward trajectory having achieved 288,000 in 2022-2023, up from 240,000 boxes the previous crop year, a 17 per cent increase.

“The decline of 61,000 boxes from 2023-2024 brings into sharp focus the impact of Hurricane Beryl, as well as last September’s rainy period which resulted in actual loss of cherry berries at the farm gate with an estimated value of approximately $600 million. This was further compounded by the poor infrastructure, particularly the bad road network in the Blue Mountain region, constraints in irrigation, as well as the high cost of inputs,” Grant explained.

Earlier in the year, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green announced the CREP, saying that it would be a big boost to the coffee sector. However, according to Grant, to date there have been no disbursements from the programme, despite the increased efforts of coffee farmers who have responded positively to improved market gate box prices for their coffee, including green bean.

At a reception held by the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association (JCEA) for a delegation from the Association of Japanese Importers of Jamaican Coffee (AJIJC) in June at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Green noted that among the features of the assistance would be the provision of “15,000 coffee seedlings, fertiliser, improvements to the road network in coffee growing regions including good drainage systems, and most importantly training to help farmers adjust to new climate smart agricultural practices”.

The minister had further stated that the assistance is designed to assist “15,000 coffee farmers and 102,000 farm families. We’re going to be focusing on sustainable growth by ensuring that we embark on our biggest-ever replanting programme that Jamaica has seen for Blue Mountain Coffee”.

Meanwhile, Grant noted that the strategic vision of the JCEA is to develop the Jamaica Blue Mountain and High Mountain brands and expand the market to ultimately engage the over 25 million coffee stakeholders and millions more of coffee consumers globally in celebrating the ‘finest coffee in the world’ by a strategy that includes guaranteeing quality, maintaining consistent supply and sustainable prices.

He shared that the fundamental mission of the JCEA is to “grow and re-develop the Jamaican coffee industry through increased production from the current 224,000 boxes to 450,000 boxes per annum over the next four years, as well as increasing the productivity of our farmers, sustainable prices, brand development, expansion, market development locally and internationally, and diversification into areas such as coffee infused chocolate and others.”

Currently, some 70 per cent of total production of Blue Mountain Coffee is exported in green bean to Japan, with the rest exported to the US, UK and Europe. Coffee is among Jamaica’s top 10 exports and is a significant contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.