Jamaica’s Coffee Industry to Be Revitalized 

• Local Coffee farmers will be prioritised under the new Food Security, Agribusiness Development, Climate Smart Technologies and Export Expansion (FACE) initiative, says Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green.  
• The Minister disclosed that in the next financial year, they will launch the Crop Restoration and Establishment Programme (CREP), which is focused on rebuilding Jamaica’s coffee industry.  
• “It is tailored to suit 5,000 coffee farmers and 102,000 farm families. We’re going to be focusing on sustainable growth by ensuring that we embark on our biggest ever replanting programme that Jamaica has seen for Blue Mountain Coffee,” Mr. Green said.
• The Minister underscored that, like other agricultural crops, coffee farmers are affected by harsher climatic conditions, ageing farming populations, and increased costs for agricultural inputs. Over the next three to five years, he said, the objective is to increase output to 450,000 boxes of coffee and boost farmer productivity.
• This anticipated boost in local coffee production should bode well for companies such as Salada Foods, whose revenues and earnings would have been severely impacted due to the limited availability of Jamaican green coffee beans necessary for production of its coffee products. 

(Sources: JIS & NCBCM Research)