COFFEE is among the oldest beverages known to man and is also amongst the three most popular drinks in the world, alongside water and tea. Coffee is numbered amoung the most profitable international commodities mainly because of the limitless array of beverages to include espresso, cappuccino, mochas, and other mixes with cocoa and the kola nut (bissy). The importance of its titillating taste and aroma is rooted in the presence of caffeine and a delicate acidic balance.

In Jamaica, coffee was produced in three categories — lowland, highland and Blue Mountain — but as the coffee trade became more competitive more emphasis was placed on the premier category, Blue Mountain coffee, which is ranked amoung the world’s best-tasting coffee because of the elevation of the Blue Mountain, soil types, and microclimate.

These geographic characteristics make for difficult cultivation and husbandry and is partly responsible for the rapid decline in production from over 550,000 boxes in the 1960s to the the early 1980s to production in 2023 which was 220,000 boxes.

The number of coffee farmers declined sharply over the last 50 years — from about 15000 to 5000 currently — because of the decimation of low and highland farms which cannot compete with cheap, inferior coffee from our South American neighbours. Experts believe that Jamaica’s future in coffee would be more promising with the reintroduction of low and highland coffee to facilitate various blends, with Blue Mountain coffee for both local consumption and export. The proposals also aim to drive greater local coffee consumption in the hotels and restaurants at more affordable prices than what presently exists with the Blue Mountain brand.

Blue Mountain coffee production is in crisis and needs urgent attention beyond an intervention. Recent Government announcements pledged inputs (fertilisers, insecticides etc), infrastructural improvements, and another study to determine fair coffee prices to farmers — but with a proviso that the Government cannot determine the prices. And they are correct.

Government must direct its resources to save the industry and avert the crisis so as to ensure optimum benefits to the farmers and to the industry by considering the following:

1) Carry out major road improvements to the Blue Mountain coffee belt.

2) Provide irrigation to those farms with access to water sources.

3) Increase the amount of extension officers to attain greater advisory delivery and enhance technology transfer and crop husbandry.

4) Institute a national disease and pest control programme with linkages to Bodles, CASE, RADA and the universities.

5) Redirect Jamaica Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (JACRA) to concentrate on coffee quality and brand protection — in concert with Jampro — storage, and a national and international marketing plan.

6) Direct RADA to develop a training programme in proper land use, optimum shade cover, good environmental protection, and applicable land conservation practices.

6) Redevelop both high and lowlands coffee with strong emphasis of zoning, marketing and processing. This would satisfy import substitution and save foreign exchange outflows.

7) Integrate coffee extension service with RADA to attain greater efficiency on extension delivery and productivity.

8) Create a coffee institute at CASE to lead research into the sector and protect its heritage.

The coffee crisis must be tackled head-on and should not be allowed to slide downslope any further like our beef, dairy, sugar cane and banana industries.

Lenworth Fulton is past president of Jamaica Agricultural Society.