SMEs benefit from coffee festival
THE ANNUAL Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival continues to be a highly anticipated event for small and medium-sized enterprises, providing the opportunity for them to showcase their products and make important business contacts.
Fifty-nine booth holders participated in this year’s staging, held recently at the picturesque Newcastle grounds in the cool hills of St Andrew.
Among them was founder-chief executive officer of JoJo Bean Bath and Body Care, Melissa MarshallNelson, who was participating in the festival for the first time.
She said that at first she felt “overwhelmed” as she was not one who enjoyed large crowds.
“As a Christian and as a true woman of God, I just put it to the Lord in prayer to strengthen my heart so that I could be forthcoming with the goodness of the brand,” said Marshall-Nelson.
She said that as things got settled, persons started visiting her booth and looking at the various product offerings, which included coffee body oil, coffee and sea salt scrub, coffee-infused lotion bar, cleansing balm, and cleansing grain.
“I wanted to sell off everything ... that was the expectation that I was going in with,” MarshallNelson said.
She added that although not all the products were sold, she was grateful for the sales received, noting that she got “good exposure”.
“Funny enough, even though it was a coffee festival, the majority of our products that were sold were not coffee-based,” she said, noting that patrons were very interested in the combination of ingredients used in products such as the cleansing balm and grain.
She further expressed gratitude for the experience garnered through her participation in the seventh staging of t he festival, noting that it allowed for interaction with customers.
“We were impressed with the kind of reception that we got. We wanted to put ourselves out there because even though the business was established from 2019, I personally have always preferred to stay behind the scenes. I tried several things to push the brand that would not require my face or my voice, and, of course, that was an epic failure,”she pointed out.
Owner of Paris Ruby Gourmet, Zelecia Smith, said that it was her third year as a booth holder at the coffee festival.
Being based in Montego Bay, she shared that the festival gave her the opportunity to connect face-to-face with customers outside of her locale.
“I look forward to the festival each year. It gives me a lot of exposure to corporate Jamaica,” she added.
Smith also credited the festival for boosting her creativity in producing items that are infused with coffee.
Among the products she showcased at the festival were coffee-infused cheesecake, coffee banana bread, bread pudding, and red velvet cake.
A successful staging of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival would not have been possible without the patrons who journeyed to New Castle via the shuttle buses.
Kamoy Thompson shared her excitement, noting that she loved the fact that the festival was held in the Blue Mountains.
“The ride up was wonderful. It was very scenic. It was a breath of fresh air literally because you could smell the difference in the air and the drop in temperature as we elevated the mountainside,” she said.
Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that discussions are under way to expand the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival to other parts of the island.
He noted, however, that for the event to grow beyond its current capacity, it would require strong support from the private sector.
He said that the team at the ministry, through the Tourism Enhancement Fund, is looking at different solutions to expand the reach of the festival.
“Next year, we want to do better than this year. We think it is at the point where a heavier privatesector intrusion is necessary to give it more legs, more body, and to take it beyond the Newcastle location. So we will be talking about that this year and beyond to see how we can take it to Mandeville, Montego Bay, Port Antonio, and other places across Jamaica,” said Bartlett.