Agro-processor Mavis Bank Coffee Factory (MBCF) is preparing to launch new products as it pursues market and product diversification and product development strategies.

Managing director and CEO Norman Grant shared that the strategies are in response to a directive from the company’s chairman, Michael Lee-Chin, to increase revenue as margins become thinner due to the cost of sales.

“On the world market the price for Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee has not increased, but we have increased the cost of sales because of the payment to the farmers from $6,000 [per box] to now $8,000; last crop season it was $10,000. So the revenue from a box of coffee has not increased but the cost of box of coffee has increased,” he explained to Jamaica Observer.

“So we now have to look at how we diversify our business to get to more margins and more revenues from coffee-related products,” the CEO continued.

Moreover, Grant said the thrust toward product and market diversification, and product development also form part of the MBCF’s 100th anniversary legacy projects. His disclosure of the company’s strategic direction came during the launch of the new Jablum Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee-infused chocolate bar, which took place at the Jablum Coffee House in New Kingston.

The new product is the result of a partnership between MBCF and Ocho Rios, St Ann-based Pure Chocolate, which will be manufacturing the chocolate bar at its factory in Island Village. According to Grant, the chocolate bar combines two of Jamaica’s well known commodities: Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee and locally grown cacao beans.

“So here we have two winners in introducing the Jablum Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee-infused chocolate,” he told patrons gathered in the Jablum Coffee House, adding that it is “a royal marriage between two of the best beans in the world”.

“I think the engagement of this product [in the market] over the next 12 to 18 months, as part of our diversification strategy, can add anywhere in the region of $100 million to our revenues by distributing this both locally and overseas,” he added.

Over that time MBCF will be leveraging its relationships with various distributors — including supermarkets, craft shops, and stores in Jamaica’s two major airports — as well as Pure Chocolate’s partners to drive market penetration. The Jablum Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee-infused chocolate bar will also be sold on the MBCF’s website.

When asked if the shortage in quality cacao beans will be a challenge to the company’s product diversification strategy in the near future, Grant disclosed that MBCF will begin growing the produce on 2,000 acres of farmland belonging to subsidiary company Wallenford Coffee. Already the company has begun engaging farmers, who lease and supply coffee, to add the cultivation of cacao beans to the mix.

“We have given instructions to the farmers and we are also going to be planting [cacao] as part of a strategy to ensure we have a sustainable, quality raw material supply,” the MBCF managing director said.

Co-founders of Pure Chocolate, Wouter Tjeertes and Rennae Johnson, recently told Business Observer it has begun partnering with more local farmers as it grows its domestic market and builds its export profile.

“There are a lot of farmers who have abandoned their farms and started doing something else because the Government wasn’t paying them, [and] they couldn’t really bother [to] plant anything new. We’re now identifying farms that are suitable for rehabilitation. We’d make everything work again, including fertilising it,” Tjeertes revealed in April this year.

One such farmer he referred to was the Portland native known as Mr Bodie, who had plans to exit the cacao trade back in 2018 when Pure Chocolate approached.

MBCF’s product diversification strategy began taking shape in 2021 when it invested $5 million in its single-serve coffee cup production. Grant also revealed to Business Observer during a recent tour of the plant that the company was getting ready to relaunch the Jablum bottled ice coffee product line, which was discontinued.

Commenting on the company’s market diversification strategy, MBCF Vice-Chairman Mark McIntosh explained they are looking at “other ways to approach new markets and new generations who have different interests”. Additionally, he said while MBCF is focused on local consumption, it is also targeting the export market.

MBCF recently made its first shipment of coffee to the Italian city of Genoa.

“Traditionally the exports have been focused on green unroasted coffee [but] we’ve increased significantly our sales of roasted products in the US. We have two more products coming that we can’t talk about that are directed at the foreign market,” he said.