KINGSTON, Jamaica – The ‘Eat Jamaican Global Campaign’ is to be expanded into targeted markets within the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK), as the Government seeks to promote the consumption of authentic Jamaican food produce worldwide.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Floyd Green told JIS News at the Eat Jamaican Month Cook Off and Farmers Market held on Friday at the Ministry’s Hope Complex in Kingston, that the global campaign commenced this month in Florida.

“We had our first outing on this global campaign in South Florida. The plan now is to go into the other areas during the course of the year… [towards] Eat Jamaican 2025. We will be going to New York, Canada and the United Kingdom,” he said.

The minister noted that “Eat Jamaican Month is celebrated annually every November. Eat Jamaica Day is celebrated on the 25th of November. What we decided to do this year is to take the show on the road, and largely target our main diaspora centres to achieve a number of things”.

Green shared that while the campaign promotes the consumption of Jamaican products, it will also include a public education component to assist the diaspora in identifying authentic Jamaican produce.

“It is important that we continue to push Eat Jamaican because one of our priorities is to drive exports and the best way to drive exports is to ensure that the diaspora is supporting the items that you are growing here locally. We continue to push that message,” the Minister stated.

He said that “one of the challenges that we do have abroad is that manufacturers claim to be making Jamaican products because ours command a higher price and have a better flavour profile, and we need our diaspora members to be able to identify and differentiate our products”.

He said the ministry will be working with the consuls “to go into those spaces that carry authentic Jamaican items, and those restaurants that use authentic Jamaican products and publish those. We are putting together a database with that information”.

Another element of the ‘Eat Jamaican Global Campaign’ is to encourage the diaspora to invest in Jamaica.

“We are seeing good uptake not just from the Caribbean diaspora, but also the African diaspora. The best way to promote eating Jamaican is growing Jamaican, so we need to see more diaspora members investing in the sector especially, as we continue to build out new agro-parks and see other emerging opportunities. The diaspora in the United States and the UK are well positioned to invest in agriculture,” said Green.
–              JIS