Nakashka expands local distribution of Moy Hall Estate Coffee
ONE DOESN’T have to be a coffee connoisseur to appreciate just how good Moy Hall Estate Coffee is, cultivated as it is at an altitude of over 3,000 metres in the St Thomas region of the Blue Mountains.
One taste and you realise the ‘King of the Blue Mountain’ tag on the bag is no joke. Jamaican coffee lovers will therefore be delighted to know that Nakashka Coffee Company, which produces Moy Hall Estate Coffee, and which for decades had exported 90 per cent of the coffee it produces, is now making sure more Jamaicans have access to the product.
The company has targeted major towns outside of Kingston to begin this push, according to vice-president, Paula Fletcher.
“We decided, Kingston is not Jamaica and we’re getting requests so let us venture out of Kingston. So, we’re now i n Kingston, Montego Bay, Mandeville and Ocho Rios,” Fletcher told The Gleaner recently as the company staged a promotion inside Progressive Supermarket in Ocho Rios.
An initial amount placed on the shelves in Ocho Rios in December went quickly, she pointed out.
“Within short order, there were additional requests for stock,” Fletcher said.
“We are amazed at how well it has done. It seems as if the word is out more than we realise and we’re grateful for the support because it helps to keep us going and it encourages us. My husband, the farmer, will tell you that it’s not an easy business so we’re glad that people are enjoying it. It’s estate coffee so it’s not just a Blue Mountain coffee, it is a premium reserve brand.”
Shoppers at the supermarket loved it. A woman in line to cash her goods was sipping a cold coffee as another lady who was in the line enquired if the coffee was good;
“Mi nuh drink coffee yuh nuh, suh wen yuh see mi a drink dis, yuh know seh it good!” the first woman confirmed.
While samples were limited to one per person, one man managed to get three servings. That’s how much he enjoyed it.
The company began farming coffee in 1994, exporting mostly to Japan, and the United States, where it is then packaged. In 2013 the company decided to start selling packaged coffee, while maintaining its export quota.
In 2021, Jamaica’s total earnings from coffee export to countries such as Japan, United States, Switzerland, Belgium, and China, was $23 million. In 2023, coffee exports rose by approximately 30 per cent.
Jamaica has consistently exported in the region of 550,000 kg of coffee over the past few years.
In explaining the rich taste of Moy Hall Estate Coffee, farmer Courtney Fletcher told The Gleaner, “Blue Mountain coffee is from the Blue Mountain, but our estate is especially suited mainly because of elevation and also because of the micro-climate, meaning the soil. We have good rainfall that coffee loves, we have the temperatures that coffee loves, at that elevation, so the coffee does very well up there.”
He described his coffee as a specialty coffee that has been officially graded as excellent.