Workers at Mavis Bank Coffee Factory in the process of sorting beans by size and removing imperfections. The sorting is necessary to create an even coffee roast and prevent burning.
(Photo: Gavin Jones)
Trouble brewing: Climate change leaving bitter taste for coffee
Production slashed in half; farmers blame extreme weather, but say industry salvageable
On Tuesday, March 18, the Jamaica Observer will publish a special supplement on climate change in its online edition. Log on to www.jamaicaobserver.com to check out ‘Climate Change: Confronting the rising tide’, which will provide expert insights on the change in weather patterns, and highlight the impact of the crisis on Jamaica and how stakeholders are fighting back. This is one of the many stories in the supplement.
AS the climate continues to change, so have the fortunes of Jamaica’s coffee sector, according to industry players who say the changing weather pattern is causing billions of dollars in losses, slumping production and even a warping of the taste profile of the island’s beloved beverage.
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The Blue Mountains once boasted a specific microclimate that made it ideal for growing Arabica coffee, the end product being the world famous ‘Blue Mountain Coffee’ brand renowned for its uniquely rich and smooth flavour. However, the region has been subject to climate-fuelled changes for over a decade, according to Patrick Pitterson, senior director of the Coffee Division at the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA).
“Up until around 2007, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm [daily], there used to be rain in the Blue Mountains. Around 2012, we started to notice a drastic change in that climatic factor and that has impacted the maturation of the crop,” Pitterson told the Jamaica Observer.
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He explained that cool air and moisture had slowed the coffee maturation, resulting in the production of richer, denser and sweeter coffee. Now, not only is warmer weather and erratic rainfall affecting the amount harvested, the taste has been altered as well.
“Our ardent coffee makers, our connoisseurs from across the world [have noticed] that the taste profile is not where it was 10 to 15 years ago,” Pitterson said. “The level of intensity — the sweetness that we have experienced from the Blue Mountain coffee is still there, but not as intense as it used to be.”
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Against this background, the Jamaica Coffee Growers Association (JCGA) says the iconic industry is floundering, noting drastic declines in the production of Blue Mountain and High Mountain coffee over the last 25 years.
“It’s definitely under threat. Because, I think at the moment, we produce about 200,000 to 250,000 boxes and at one stage, we were producing 500,000. And in the High Mountain [coffee], we were producing 300,000 boxes, now, we are producing about 12,000,” said Donald Salmon, president of the association.
Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association, expressed similar sentiments, noting that increasingly strong and frequent storms was a major issue affecting the industry. “Right now, because of climate change, the volume of Blue Mountain Coffee is significantly down in comparison to last year. Maybe about 40 per cent less,” Grant told Observer Online.
Grant said about 100,000 boxes of coffee had been lost between Hurricane Beryl, Tropical Storm Rafael and other natural disasters, describing the resulting state of the road network as “terrible, scandalous and depressing”.
Salmon expounded: “We lost about a billion dollars’ worth of coffee during the rain. Because it was reaping period and the farmers could not go out. It just could not work. And then, in the mountains, because of [rain] the road infrastructure was severely tested. Even if the road was not blocked, it was almost impossible to drive on it.”
Growing coffee is a lengthy process that thrives in mountainous areas, with farmers sometimes having to wait up to three years to reap their first crop from newly planted trees. Indicative of the sector’s declining ‘bang for buck’ is the fact that the number of farmers in the industry today is about a third of what it was at the turn of the century. According to the JCGA, Jamaica had around 15,000 farmers just over two decades ago, but now that number has dwindled to around 5,000.
Salmon explained that, following a series of losses caused by extreme weather events, many farmers moved to what he described as more lucrative crops like plantains and bananas. The JCGA president lamented what he said was a lack of strategies to increase versatility in the sector.
“There’s literally no [adaptation]. I’m not knocking the farmers, we tend to do what we know but we need to get the cutting-edge technology. What’s happening in Brazil, Africa? Wherever other people plant coffee [and] how can we adapt that to suit our situation? That [intervention] must come from a government agency,” Salmon stressed.
JACRA’s Pitterson says the authority is doing just that as it is currently closely monitoring a greenhouse coffee project in Brazil, with the intent to replicate the programme locally, depending on its success. Mixing coffee varieties is also in the pipeline.
“We are now looking at 23 varieties, the ones that will be selected must be more climate-resilient, similar in taste profile to the [Arabica] and either resistant or tolerant to the coffee leaf rust [disease],” Pitterson said. “We are narrowing them down based on the results as we go along.”
Once selected, those varieties are to be reintroduced to the industry to help boost productivity and resilience, the JACRA senior director noted.
Grant, who is also the chief executive officer and managing director of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, expressed confidence in CREP, the $1.2-billion Crop Restoration and Establishment Programme between the Government and farmers which, he says, will inject $200 million per year into the coffee industry providing seedlings, fertiliser, chemicals, training of farmers as well as support for growth, with an aim to double production. The Jamaica Coffee Exporters’ Association had been lobbying for the programme for some time.
He said additional adaptability measures to combat climate change should include the planting of agro forests with trees to protect coffee plants from severe weather, soil conservation methods and better road networks. He added that insurance was another major component.
“What you have to do is to implement strategies to mitigate. We believe that this also brings into sharp focus the need for the reintroduction of the coffee insurance plan, whereby when they lose berries, they can get a percentage compensation that will allow them certain funding to resuscitate their farm,” Grant said.
Salmon’s hope is that those with the technical skills and scientific background will provide assistance to local farmers. While confident that the industry will never die off completely, the coffee farmer is convinced that increasing productivity is the key to longevity.
“In the short term, [just] two years, we can increase production by 100 per cent by just increasing productivity. Even without the application of new technology,” he said.
Grant called on the minister of agriculture and various Members of Parliament to allocate money to protect the industry from continuous shocks.
“Shopkeepers survive, the transport sector benefits from it, the churches benefit from it. It is so much of a critical economy within the Blue Mountain region that you cannot allow it to die. If you do, it will create significant hardship on the citizens of these areas,” Grant said.
He added, “Managing climate change is not eliminating it, we don’t have any control over natural disasters. What we control is how we implement strategies to reduce and mitigate and to put the coffee farmers back into as [good] a position as possible after the disaster.”
President of the Jamaica Coffee Growers Association Donald Salmon tends to coffee plants.
The entrance to Mavis Bank Coffee Factory in St Andrew where coffee is sorted, roasted and prepared for export. (Photo Gavin Jones)
Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association and CEO of the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, demonstrates the Q-grading process, an international standard used to assess the quality of coffee. (Photo Gavin Jones )
Denton Prendegast, a supervisor at Mavis Bank Coffee Factory and an employee for over 45 years, demonstrates the process of storing green coffee beans before they are sorted and roasted. (Photo Gavin Jones)
