Elizabeth Morgan | Jamaica’s production and export of coffee: Potential and challenges

This week, in this series looking at traditional agricultural exports, I am focusing on coffee. Jamaica’s Blue Mountain Coffee is recognised by the International Coffee Organization as a high quality specialty coffee. The demand for Blue Mountain coffee is high, but the production level is low. As with cocoa, this is the challenge for Jamaican coffee producers – how to increase production and earnings from exports.

HISTORY OF COFFEE IN JAMAICA

Former Governor of Jamaica, 1718-1722, Sir Nicholas Lawes, planted seven coffee seedlings at his Temple Hall plantation in St Andrew in 1728. He had received coffee beans through Martinique. Lawes is credited with introducing coffee cultivation to Jamaica. However, another man in Clarendon had also received beans from Martinique and was able to grow one tree, which helped to spread cultivation. Regardless of this, between 1728 and 1768, coffee cultivation was mainly in the foothills of St Andrew.

It expanded into the Blue Mountains and into mountainous regions of Manchester, St Ann and St Elizabeth. Coffee cultivation was not without its challenges – soil nutrient depletion, soil erosion, and inclement weather. Nevertheless, the quality of the coffee was found to be very good and there was a demand for it in Britain.

The peak of coffee cultivation and export was between 1800 and 1834. It is said that expertise from Haiti (San Domingue) contributed. The largest quantity of coffee exported was in 1814, when over 34,000,000lb (15,000,000 kgs) of coffee was exported. After the emancipation of enslaved people in 1834 and the end of the apprenticeship system in 1838, coffee production and export declined dramatically. Large producers, especially in Manchester, St Ann and St Elizabeth, abandoned coffee, which, thereafter, became largely a small farmers’ crop.

Jamaica’s coffee was still entered into international exhibitions and coffee festivals, including the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition and the 1886 London Colonial and Indian Exhibition, at which Jamaica won medals and got commendations. Coffee, however, remained in a slump. It was not until the 1891 Great Exhibition, held in Jamaica, that action was taken to begin reviving coffee cultivation with the adoption of legislation.

The coffee industry continued to decline, and it was in the 1940s that more serious action began to revive the industry with a rehabilitation programme, further legislation, and dedicated financing. The Coffee Industry Board, now subsumed in the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulation Authority, was established in 1948.

The board encouraged the development of the industry, regulated the growing, purchasing, sale and processing of coffee, and promoted the welfare of those engaged in the industry. The rehabilitation was focused on the Blue Mountain Coffee-growing areas at elevations of 1,000 feet and above.

ENTER THE JAPANESE

In 1953, the UCC Ueshima Coffee Company was the first Japanese company to buy coffee directly from Jamaica. Previously, Jamaican coffee entered Japan through British traders. On January 9, 1967, the largest shipment of coffee, 1,400 bags directly to Japan, was dispatched. This was the point at which Japan became the largest purchaser of Jamaican coffee. Japan would have taken all the coffee which Jamaica could produce and more.

The Ueshima Coffee Company, in 1981, purchased the Craighton Coffee Estate and great house in Irish Town. The company has invested in the development and sustaining of the coffee industry in this region. The relationship between the Ueshima Coffee Company and Jamaica is now in its 71st year. The relationship with the Japanese Association of Coffee Importers is in its 57th year. Japan remains Jamaica’s most important export market for coffee.

CAN JAMAICA PRODUCE MORE COFFEE?

Jamaica could sell far more coffee than it produces and further expand its markets. Coffee is still primarily grown in the Blue Mountain region. Cultivation, in terms of high mountain coffee, does not extend to any significant level into areas cultivated in the 19th Century, such as Manchester, St Ann and St Elizabeth.

Jamaica’s coffee production has trended down since 2010. For this period, Jamaica exported the most coffee in 2014, and only about half that quantity between 2017 and 2023. It is reported that in 2022, Jamaica exported coffee valued at US$26.2 million to mainly Japan, USA, Switzerland, China and Belgium.

What are the challenges facing coffee today? There are complaints from coffee farmers that prices are too low, which does not provide a living wage. Constant vigilance is required to combat diseases; there is soil exhaustion and erosion; and inclement weather, to which is now added climate change.

Add to this, also, poor infrastructure and labour shortage, as coffee cultivation, including replanting, and harvesting require manual labour. It may be that manual labour is no longer seen as desirable work in Jamaica. It also requires younger, committed farmers to enter the sector.

The Government recently announced the implementation of the Crop Restoration and Establishment Programme (CREP) to benefit 5,000 coffee farmers. It is aimed at rejuvenating and rebuilding the sector to increase production.

Let’s hope that this programme bears some fruit. Coffee has a lot of potential; it has markets, but like other traditional agricultural export crops, it faces many challenges.

- Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com