Coffee exporters optimistic about recovery
Estimated that recent flood rains damaged over $200-million worth of Blue Mountain crop
PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association (JCEA), Norman Grant says the sector is optimistic that it can rebound from the recent flood rains which have damaged some $200 million worth of the current Blue Mountain crop.
He said the bulk of the losses relate to ripe berries which were spoilt, the loss of coffee trees from landslides, and increased transport costs due to severe damage to the road infrastructure.
The losses have come as the coffee industry recorded a 12 per cent increase for 2019-20 over the previous crop year, and Grant believes that with an increase in support to the sector from Government and the resilience of farmers who have continued to reinvest, the industry can improve in terms of both productivity and earnings.
Grant was speaking recently with members of the All-japan Coffee Roasters Association, a key group of buyers from that country, at a virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will now have discussions with the individual buyers over the next two months, but the tone of the meeting appears that they would buy at least the same quantity as last crop year,” he noted.
Jamaica coffee exports to Japan were worth around US$10 million for the last crop year. Grant had called for some $150 million to be allocated from the budget of the former Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries to the coffee farming sector and some funds had been allocated.
However, the export figures remain a far cry from the 700,000 million boxes produced or seven million pounds back in 2003-04 when exports ranged from 1,800 tonnes to Japan, which constitutes some 70 per cent of the export market.
The fall in exports is largely blamed on a number of factors, including a fall in export prices; crop diseases, drought and high input costs; as well as poor road conditions in rural coffee farming communities, with Grant pointing to a need for “a gradual market recovery so as not to upset the fickle market equilibrum due to pricing concerns”.
Former Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw had last year pointed to a Us$100-million grant from China to address farm roads in mountainous coffee-growing areas.
“Now our export to Japan is 300 tonnes annually while 20 per cent goes to the USA and 10 per cent to Europe, China and other emerging markets,” Grant told the Jamaica Observer’s Business Observer.
It is expected that a recent Supreme Court ruling against coffee imports should also help to strengthen local coffee producers.
In her comments during the recent virtual meeting with Japanese coffee buyers, Jamaica’s Ambassador to Japan Shorna-kay Richards recalled the great ties between the two nations, due in large part to the long-standing trading relationship centred around Blue Mountain Coffee.
She also commended the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green for his “dedication to the tasks at hand”.
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