COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the operations of Coffee Traders Limited (CTL)/Café Blue mainly in our roasted coffee sales and our restaurant operations.

Restaurant Operations

Since mid-March when Jamaica experienced its first case of COVID-19 and restrictions were placed on cruise ships, we started making adjustments by closing the first Café Blue at Shoppes of Rose Hall. Later on, when the airports started to see an almost complete withdrawal of flights into the island, we closed both our stores at NMIA and SIA. We have since closed our Irish Town store location because of the nature of the in-dining experience and further curfews being implemented.

Fortunately, two of our locations are open — Café Blue and Deli Works in Sovereign Centre, Liguanea and Café Blue in Fairview, Montego Bay. Although opening hours and in-store sales have reduced, we are happy to be able to keep some of our staff at work and our customers serviced during these most challenging times.

To ensure the safety of our staff and customers during this time, weincreased sanitisation and use of masks and gloves by our team members, temperature checks for staff and customers, and started offering delivery through existing platforms and kerbside pick-up.

As a big supporter of local farmers and entrepreneurs, we participated in the ‘Say Yes to Fresh’ programme, using our reach to encourage Jamaicans to buy local. We’ve also showed our tremendous appreciation to some of our health-care workers in the form of donations of coffee brewers and capsules to help them through their long, gruelling hours.

Roasted Coffee/Hotel supplies

The area of most significant decline in our operations has been our roasted coffee and hotel supplies business, as we supply the hospitality sector in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean. Because of the closure of the majority of hotels in this region, we have been forced to reduce our roasting factory through put by 80% and have had to lay off a significant number of staff. Although we have subsidised salaries, we know our team members are having many challenges and we try our best to support whenever we can.

Green Coffee Exports

As the largest exporter of coffee in Jamaica, we have been fortunate to still be exporting green coffee into all the major markets around the world including Japan, Europe, China, Taiwan, Canada and the USA. This side of our business should allow us to maintain a basic level of operations and help us to withstand the next 6-12 months of the COVID-19 downturn. It also means that in the short term we can continue to purchase cherry coffee from over 3,000 coffee farmers in the Blue Mountains, which will greatly assist to maintain some level of normalcy in the rural communities in this region.

Although we are fortunate that the export markets remain buoyant we are concerned that the demand for luxury products like Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee will start to decline. This may lead to high inventory levels in the medium term which may affect future crop demand. One way or another, we expect things to get worse before they get better.

Farming Operations

CTL and its sister company, Clifton Mount Coffee Estate, owns and operates over 10 coffee farms which continue full operation within the boundaries of the COVID-19 measures. Some of these farms are in the final stages of bearing for the 2019/20 crop year, and so we continue to reap and process our coffee as per usual. We will also continue to invest in maintenance to improve yields in the next crop year.

Looking to the future

As we look to thrive in an altered post-COVID world, we are looking at ways to serve the needs of our customers.

With the significant increase in e-commerce, we have revamped our Café Blue website and are now working on the fulfilment infrastructure, so we hope to launch our online sales functionality soon. There is a huge opportunity to sell our renowned Blue Mountain coffee in its final form to consumers across the world, and we’re excited about those plans and building our Café Blue brand internationally. It will give us more of the coffee value chain, and a more diversified customer base.

We’re also excited about the opening of our newest Café Blue on Constant Spring Road which we expect to open once dining-in rules are relaxed. We heard the loud calls from people residing and working in Kingston 8, and look forward to serving them soon! We will launch with exciting new delights and our signature Blue Mountain coffee drinks in a modern, comfortable setting with spacious seating.

We are also looking at our manufacturing facilities and will be exploring opportunities to retool to improve our productivityand quality and expand our product offering.

While the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating and can be long-lasting, we remain committed to our farmers, our customers, our staff, and to continued growth in Jamaica. We will get through this together!

Café Blue & Deli Works Sovereign Centre

Address: Shop 1A, 106 Hope Rd, Kingston 6

Phone #: 876-978-7790

Café Blue Irish Town

Phone #: 876-944-8918

Café Blue Fairview

Address: Allice Eldemire Drive, Montego Bay

Phone #: 876-953-4646

Coffee Traders Limited

Address: 214 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston 11

Phone #: 876-969-2326

Clifton Mount Coffee Estate Limited

Address: Heritage Gardens of Cold Spring

Coffee Traders Limited /Clifton Mount Coffee Estate Limited

Address: Units 9 & 10, Blaise Industrial Park, 69 Constant Spring Road, Kingston 10

Phone #: 876-969-2326; 876-969-7980