MINISTER of Agriculture and Fisheries Pearnel Charles Jr says his ministry will be actively involved this year in efforts to increase coffee production.

According to Charles Jr, a partnership to increase the farming and export of Jamaica’s Blue Mountain Coffee is critical to the expansion of the local product’s popularity in the world market. He said that both the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) are teaming with the ministries of industry, investment and commerce and tourism to increase the island’s coffee production and explore export opportunities.

He said that JACRA will be developing a coffee industry business model, which will address diversification of market investment opportunities, identify new technologies and practices and will encourage an increase in its production for the mutual benefit of stakeholders and farmers.

He said that JACRA will also be targeting a “rapid expansion in the production of both Blue and High Mountain coffees”, which will be supported by nurseries and input resources.

“So there is a lot that we are doing, and we will be focusing this year on making sure that we play our role as partners to really push for increased cultivation and production and to see how this will become a part of our ‘Grow Smart, Eat Smart’ campaign,” Charles Jr told stakeholders and guests attending Monday’s launch of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day inside the Edward Seaga lounge at Devon House in St Andrew.

Farmers, the minister said, should benefit from the experiences from his visit to Japan as well as information gathered from their experts on how to refocus and improve production through increased collaboration and co-ordination where they are needed.

He said that there are plans to develop connections between the important ministries, government agencies and stakeholders, “which are exactly what we what we need as a formula to really get coffee to where it needs to be”.

However, Charles Jr admitted that there are several challenges to be confronted, which have already led to his ministry having discussions to refocus its attention to the contribution of government agencies, like JACRA and RADA, to see how they can redefine operations at the coffee farms.

“We can start to build our capacity, and we can start to ensure that the training and understanding in creating a robust sustainable framework and architecture for coffee, is there,” he added.

Charles was one of three Cabinet ministers who spoke at the launch, the others being Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill and Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

According to Senator Hill, Jamaica now has the “premier” coffee bean in the world, and is doing “fantastically well”, with Japan remaining as its main importer.

“Jamaican coffee is robust, to borrow a term that will explain that coffee is robust and strong, and it is a good year to be celebrating. But, we have to take it forward,” he said.

He also noted that Jamaica’s earnings from coffee export has fallen from US$37 million in 2018 to US$17 million in 2022.

“We have to get back up because our export trade gap is huge. It is US$4.5 billion. We import that much more than we export and we have to change that,” he said.

Hill promised that Government would be introducing new policies that will make sense for the manufacturers, producers and “everybody else in the game”.