Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the EU

What Buyers Want

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

6.6. A Blend of Problems Quality is also at the heart of the Jamaica Blue Mountain brand and the innovation that roasters are looking for has strong potential to enhance the EU export proposition. However, there are a number of issues that need to be dealt with to avoid diluting the brand. JBM is a registered Community Trademark, owned by Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), whose main role is to approve and protect the export quality that underpins the brand in terms of taste profile and quality specification. All exports must physically pass through JACRA’s facility for testing, and JACRA rejects beans that do not meet its strict taste or quality standards. All exporters of JBM must have a licence approved by JACRA and any importers based in the EU must have a licence so that the brand can be monitored to counter any counterfeit or illegal use of JBM trademarks. JBM is not protected by a Geographical Indicator. However, the Coffee Industry Regulation Act in Jamaica specifies which areas may use the label ‘Blue Mountain’. The Blue Mountain growing region is in the Eastern part of Jamaica, located between Kingston to the south and Port Maria and Port Antonio to the north. JBM coffee can only be harvested from the parishes of Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Portland and Saint Mary and only coffee grown from 910m up to 1,800 metres. ‘Jamaica High Mountain Supreme’ and ‘Prime Washed’ are grown in different areas to the Jamaica Blue Mountains towards the west of the island: One of the challenges of maintaining the quality reputation of the brand comes in what constitutes JBM coffee in blends. JACRA requires that all blends contain at least 20% JBM coffee to legally use the trademark. However, because this allows the majority of the coffee to be made up of much cheaper beans, it results in a huge range of taste profiles that are able to use the JBM brand. This drives volumes and builds awareness because it lowers the price point of the product but any renewed focus on quality would manage this carefully. Whilst ‘Jamaica Blue Mountain Select’ is grown in the JBM region, it deviates from the highest quality specifications and is a combination of Grade 1, 2 and 3 and is packed in 60Kg hessian bags. Despite this, it is also allowed to use the brand. Some Select bags are exported to Japan, but most enter to local domestic roaster market for local consumption, including the tourist sector, as well as some roasted exports as JBM. Again, this dilutes the carefully controlled quality profile of JBM. • •

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