Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the EU

Jamaica and the Coffee Market

Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee in the EU Windward Commodities 30th June 2022

The two dominant producer groups, Coffee Traders and Mavis Bank Wallenford, now export over 60% of all beans.

3.4. The Trouble with Roasting If approaching the EU and other export market with a lower price offer is not feasible, adding value through roasting would appear to be a logical upgrading strategy for the industry. However, there are a number of structural barriers, outside the domestic and regional tourism markets, to this. Due to the price premium commanded by JBM for green beans and the limited demand for direct sales of roasted product, the green bean equivalent price of roasted JBM (in red below) is often higher than that of green beans (in blue below). When you factor in the average cost of roasting (USD5/lb or USD11/kg) this made roasted exports less profitable than green bean sales in 9 of the last 14 years. In addition, the primary route to EU consumers is through established EU roasters who sell to coffee shops, retailers and direct to consumer online. This is difficult to circumvent as a single origin because end customers (e.g. retail multiples and coffee shops) require a range of origins. Without a portfolio, the logistics, packing, quality standards, marketing and distribution costs do not make commercial sense for JBM.

Roasted vs Green bean export prices USD/kg (green bean equivalent)

$60.00

$50.00

$40.00

$30.00

$20.00

$10.00

$-

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Green USD per KG

Roasted USD per KG

Roasted USDminus cost per KG

12 | Time to Wake Up and ‘Cup’ the Coffee