MONTEGO BAY, St James — As part of a new Eat Jamaican Global campaign, efforts will be made to protect the authenticity of the country’s cuisine.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green launched the campaign Tuesday morning during the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference at Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

“Today I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining is going to embark this year, for the first time, on an Eat Jamaican Global campaign. We are going to be launching Eat Jamaican right across the world,” he told those gathered.

The global campaign is an extension of the Eat Jamaican campaign launched in 2023 and celebrated on November 25 annually.

As the agriculture minister explained, for the global campaign the goal is to partner with consulates and missions, especially in locations where there is a strong Diaspora community, to stage events that will push the message of the importance of buying and eating Jamaican products.

“Part of our Eat Jamaican Global campaign is to ensure that we focus on helping members of the Diaspora and our wider global community identify authentically Jamaican made products and Jamaican produce,” he said during his presentation.

There will be a compilation of a database of restaurants and supermarkets offering authentic Jamaican food across the main diaspora centres.

“We want you to know who to really support when you go out and spend your hard-earned dollar,” the minister said.

He noted that the popularity of the country’s cuisine has made it possible to “command some of the highest prices in the global market”.

“Because of that, everybody wants to call their food Jamaican food. We have to allow our members of the Diaspora, those people abroad who are supporting Jamaican food, to be able to differentiate between authentic Jamaican and the fake things,” Green continued.

He said there will be increased vigilance, with a heavy reliance on technology, by his ministry as they embark on the global campaign.

“Our intention is to build out something that you can utilise to identify if this is authentic,” Green told the
Jamaica Observer after his presentation.

He gave the example of ongoing efforts to put QR codes on Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.

“When you take it up and you scan the code, you can automatically know that this is authentic Blue Mountain coffee and, in fact, it can take you back to the farmer who farmed this coffee and you can make this connection,” he said.

“We will be looking to use the technology to do things like that right across the length and breadth of the products that we offer,” the minister continued.

As he noted during his presentation that this push to boost consumption of Jamaican products has to be accompanied by increased production to meet the anticipated uptick in demand.

“Our Eat Jamaican Global campaign will be partnering with a number of our local companies, our importers, exporters, to expand the reach of Jamaican produce — and we’ll be partnering with our farmers to ensure that we are producing more,” Green said.

He urged members of the Diaspora to take advantage of investment opportunities that will present themselves as a result.

He also encouraged them to participate in the upcoming competition to find a logo for the Eat Jamaican Global campaign.

“We want you to tell us how you envision the look and feel of our Eat Jamaican Global campaign,” Green said. “I cannot think of a better place to launch this because all of you are ambassadors for Eat Jamaican Global campaign.”