KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s outgoing ambassador to Japan, H. E Shorna-Kay Richards, has expressed gratitude to the Association of Japanese Importers of Jamaican Coffee (AJIJC) and its chairman, Tatsushi Ueshima for what she described as the association’s “generosity and unwavering commitment to our enduring Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee trade.”

“You have been a pillar of support and a true partner for the development of the Jamaican coffee industry”, she said as she praised the relationship between Jamaica and Japan and the role Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee has played in forging closer ties between both nations for over 70 years.

Her comments came at a reception during the Joint JCEA/JACRA (Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority) Meeting with the Association of Japanese Importers of Jamaican Coffee at the Big Sight Convention Centre in the Koto in Tokyo recently.

“My assignment should have ended this past June but I have thankfully been blessed with “brawta” of six additional months,” Ambassador Richards said in thanking the AJIJC for its on-going support to the Jamaican Embassy through its Promotional Committee which she said had devised a number of new and innovative ways to market Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, especially in introducing the premium brew to new, especially younger consumers in the valuable Japanese market, the main importer of Jamaica’s legendary brew.

One such initiative came at the historic Yushima Tenjin Shrine, where 2,000 packets of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee or “Kachima the winning bean” were given to Japanese students seeking divine intervention as they prepared to take their extremely competitive university entrance exams earlier this year.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee was also featured at the 2025 World Expo in July and August in the Japanese city of Osaka, where the “four Bs”- Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, Bobsled and Blue Mountain Coffee were on display, and thousands of patrons were gifted AJIC-supplied coffee samples at Jamaica’s pavilion at the trade show.

Ambassador Richards paid tribute to the “visionary leadership of Dr Norman Grant”, Chairman of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association, for the active role he has played in ensuring that JBMC continues to be a product of excellence in the global coffee market. She also congratulated Grant on the recent conferment of his doctoral degree, “with his dissertation most fittingly focused on ‘Jamaica’s Blue Mountain Coffee farmers: Effective strategies for achieving profitability”.

In his response, Grant lauded Ambassador Richards for her outstanding support to the development of the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee trade in Japan: “Ambassador Shorna-Kay Richards’ support has been incredible; she has played a critical role in the promotion of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Trade Day over the past five years.

“She has been the glue in keeping the contact between the Jamaican and Japanese coffee industry, the promotion of Jamaica Blue Blend coffee products through some 30,000 stores across Japan, and conversely, in the distribution of 10,000 coffee seedlings donated by 7/11 to the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Farmers Association,” said Dr Grant.

He also commended Richards for “partnering with us in the annual trade show and meetings between the JCEA, JACRA and AJIJC.”

Grant and Ueshima presented Richards with a plaque of appreciation in recognition of her yeoman service to the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee industry and the furtherance of good relations between Jamaica and Japan.