KINGSTON, Jamaica – Coffee lovers at home will join coffee-crazy Japanese fans of the beverage today in celebrating what is now the annual Jamaica Blue Mountain (JBM) Coffee Day.

The event had its birth last year on January 9, when the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association (JCEA) teamed with the Association of Japanese Importers of Jamaican Coffee to introduce the event in both Japan and Jamaica.

This year the event, which is expected to become an annual homage to what has become probably the world’s most drinkable hot beverage, will focus on the home of the most celebrated brand which although falling on hard export times over the past decade, is again teeming with the rustic flavour of Jamaica’s longest and highest range, the Blue Mountains.

The range spans four parishes – Portland, St Thomas, St Mary and St Andrew – and the coffee delivers a special flavoured taste of the region.

Blue Mountain Coffee , probably the most famous brand in the world, is cultivated between 0.6 kilometres (0.37 mi) and 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) above sea level, retaining a historic past which dates back the days of slavery and recalling the contemporary communities of the Windward Jamaican Maroons.

Today’s celebrations are being led by the much more recently established JCEA, led by the former president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) and former senator Norman Grant, and the lately created Jamaica Agricultural Commodity Regulatory Authority, supported by JAMPRO.

According to Grant, the start of the new decade offers a vision of increasing local production of quality JBM at a sustainable price to all stakeholders, including the farmers.

 He noted that local production has fallen since the 1980s-2000s when it climbed as high as between 30 and 47 million pounds per annum, to the decline in the current decade to as low as  24 million pounds, reflecting a more than 30 per cent reduction.

“(This is) a decline from an estimated US$600 million in the last decade, to an estimated $300 million at the close of this decade, and we must aim to regain lost ground in our production and then begin to grow in keeping with at least the global trend of 5.5 per cent growth per annum,” Grant said.

The history of the Jamaica-Japan relationship dates dates back to 1953 with the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory exporting the first three barrels of coffee directly to Japan from Jamaica. Subsequently, on January 9, 1967, the largest shipment of 1,400 bags (up to that time) left the ports of Kingston destined for Japan.

 Grant said that the Japanese market over the last 66 years has grown to become the primary importers and consumers of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, purchasing approximately 70 per cent of local exports. The United States imports 20 per cent, and there are growing markets in China and Europe which are responsible for the other 10 per cent.

 “Our strategy, in the celebration of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day, is to continue to develop and expand the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee globally as a premium brand, supporting all our stakeholders, including the over 5,000 coffee farmers and 102,000 coffee farming families, exporters and customers in a sustainable manner,” Grant said.