Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the EU

Executive Summary

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

1.4. Towards Simple Solutions

Which brings us to the tension at the heart of the Jamaican coffee industry. Jamaica Blue Mountain commands a huge price premium, backed by established infrastructure, large commercial producers, institutional quality standards and established distribution. However, it is also falling behind old competitors such as Hawaii Kona that achieves higher premiums at larger volumes and newer ones such as Panama Geisha that extract huge prices and media coverage from tiny volumes. It also has an ageing consumer and farmer base with unprofitable farms that are producing less each year. The problems here are deep-seated and complex but our recommendation is simple; pilot something different. Take a single-minded focus on product innovation, quality, traceability and yields for Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee backed by the marketing required to increase, not decrease, prices into the EU market. To do this, we are proposing the establishment of a fund with contributions from the EU and Jamaican producers and the direct involvement of farmers groups. This will be market-driven, with technical and market assistance from an EU buyer to drive product and processing innovation in the form of quality, auctions and marketing to future-proof the industry for the next 70 years. 1.5. What that Means in Practice The first thing to say is that funds now need to be spent on action, not reports. And, although the solutions we are proposing may be simple in theory, there is nothing easy in practice about improving yields, introducing new varietals or training Q-cuppers. However, in conjunction with a longer-term pilot (‘new directions’ below), there is a real short-term commercial opportunity (‘enhancing excellence’) to build on the innovation that’s already taking place in Jamaica and take advantage of the EU opportunities we have identified. We strongly advocate seeking funding for these pilots from the EU commission with support from EU companies (specialty traders & distributors) and input from stakeholders (JACRA, producers and smallholder groups):

‘Enhancing excellence’ Leveraging current excellence in new ways for existing EU markets

‘New directions’ Creating new supply chains into EU markets in Scandinavia & East. Europe

Pilot

Farms

e.g. Farmers with exceptional quality, varietals or specific lots.

e.g. JAWiC and JCGA farmers, intro. new varietals, micro-lots and batches.

Processors

e.g. Coffee Traders/ Mavis Bank

e.g. Sherwood Forest/ Country Traders

Regulator

e.g. JACRA

e.g. JACRA

Distributor

e.g. Blue Mountain Group

e.g. Oubu Coffee/ Drink Moments

Trader

e.g. Rehm & Co.

e.g. Falcon Coffee

Customer

e.g. Burg, Germany, Verlet, France

e.g. Stern Coffee, Denmark, Huracan, Lithuania

Yield, price & quality improvements. Third party farm audit (trees, yields, skills, climate). Identity ‘living income’ mechanisms and yield improvements.

Production

Q-Cupping and quality consultants for specific high-quality lots and different varietals/ processes. Present current traceability and pricing at farm level.

Q-cupping/ processing certification (CQI). Introducing new varietals, new processes (e.g. anaerobic) with JACRA.

Quality

Build on Sherwood blockchain system for automated traceability

Traceability

Jamaica Cup of Excellence, Auction for quality lots, Baristas & Roasters to create interest in ‘New JBM Wave’, Higher prices for higher quality, Media.

Promotion

Brand

Drive Geographical Indicator specifically for EU niche markets

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