Reading Time: 4 minutes

An agreement has been inked between the Jamaica Coffee Exporter’s Association (JCEA) and leading management and business development consultancy firm, The Consultancy Inc. CA to design a plan to analyse, develop, modernise and ensure the growth, profitability and sustainability of Jamaica‟s coffee export sector, primarily the world-famous Blue Mountain Coffee.
The plan will also focus on High Mountain Coffee.
The global firm, with roots in Jamaica and head offices in the United States, currently has stations and team members across four global regions (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean) providing services in business development, project management, marketing and commercialisation strategy and small business development, and was granted the contract after a highly competitive bidding process.
The agreement involves the sharing of expertise between the JCEA and ‘The Consultancy Inc. CA’ and associated studies towards the development of a consolidated overarching plan for the JCEA to achieve the stated goals and objectives.
International business strategist and marketing consultant, Dr Charlene Ashley, who is leading the team from ‘The Consultancy Inc. CA’, noted that her firm was up to the challenge to reposition and develop the global Blue Mountain Coffee brand and the larger coffee export industry.
“The Consultancy Inc, CA intends to bring our well-honed participatory approach to bear in this exercise through a mission-critical focus that results in the ability to create a unified vision enabling us to tackle difficult issues head-on. Jamaica’s coffee export sector, especially Blue Mountain Coffee, is an iconic product that needs to be repositioned effectively into its luxury niche, even as we address the supply-side challenges and the myriad of allied considerations such as pricing, management, the effects of climate change, plant disease and copyright piracy, among others,” Ashley notes.
“Blue Mountain Coffee and the lesser-known, but very high-quality High Mountain Coffee are both premium commodities and we intend to explore the opportunities for wider market penetration and value-added products,” she observes.

Dr Ashley explained that the market reviews to be undertaken will be aimed at supporting the current drive to diversify the Blue Mountain Coffee market by obtaining new markets worldwide “aimed at attracting those persons with discerning palates who are willing to pay premium [dollar] for the superior taste and experience of the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee”.
“This, will lead to the development of a global strategy for increased brand awareness, segmentation and consumer demand culminating in the repositioning of the Jamaica Blue Mountain brand beyond the luxury category and importantly give the JCEA the tools for consistent monitoring and evaluation,” she pointed out.
Expanding on her mission, Dr Ashley said her company would be “using critical tools and techniques” to facilitate and guide the strategic assessment of the JCEA’s internal and external environment to include relevant reviews and analyses across the spectrum of client and customer bases including their needs and requirements including the legislative foundation, national and ministerial plans, as well as the international landscape. The company, ‘The Consultancy Inc, CA’, has experience in market development exercises spanning over 40 countries.
Meanwhile, president of the JCEA, Norman Grant, is welcoming the engagement of ‘The Consultancy Inc. CA’, which he noted was most timely, coinciding with this year’s 4th-anniversary celebrations of Blue Mountain Coffee Day—observed locally and globally across three continents in January, under the theme “Indulge in Legendary Luxury.”
“It also coincides with Jamaica’s 60th-anniversary as an independent nation and the All Japan Importers of Jamaican (Blue Mountain) Coffee (AJIJC), also celebrates their 40th-anniversary this year. We of the JCEA are also using the occasion to specially acknowledge the critical contribution of our 5,000 coffee farmers to the development of the Blue Mountain Coffee industry and the broader national economy, so it is indeed timely for us to refocus and reboot, and we are confident that ‘The Consultancy Inc. CA’ will fundamentally assist this process of renewal,” Grant said.
He added that the JCEA is also working with the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Agency (JACRA) to get support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and by extension the government, to boost the coffee industry, primarily through a request for funding to provide incentives and support to coffee farmers for a new coffee planting and redevelopment programme valued at over J$1 billion over a five-year period and geared at increasing our current level of production from 270,000 boxes to 450,000 boxes over the period, and increasing productivity from 30 boxes per acre, to 90 boxes per acre.

“This effort should increase revenue from the Jamaican coffee industry from our weighted average of US$25 million per annum over the last 10 years, to US$50 million per annum and an incremental five per cent growth per annum over the next 10 years, which would significantly impact our 5,000 farmers and 102,000 farm families that benefit from the Blue Mountain and High Mountain coffee industry,” Grant, a certified chartered accountant and Masters in business administration by training, noted.