Jablum hopes to market its coffee in the UK

Operators of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory say they want to sell the factory's product in Britain. They are hoping they might be able to forge an alliance with Jamaica-born celebrity chef, Levi Roots, to smooth the way into the market.

Mavis Bank Coffee Factory owns the Jablum brand but, as is the case with most Jamaican processors, sells most of its coffee in Japan which, for decades, bought most of the coffee grown in the island.

However, in the past two years, with the global recession, the Japanese demand for Jamaica's high-priced coffee - mostly its Blue Mountain variety - had dropped a precipitous 70 per cent.

"(Mavis Bank) is now aggressively diversifying into markets in the USA, Asia and Europe," said Norman Grant, the company's managing director. "Right now, we are targeting England, Germany, France and Russia in our European thrust."

It was as part of this drive for new markets that Grant recently hosted Levi Roots at Mavis Bank's processing facility high in the Blue Mountains.

Levi Roots said he hopes to have "meaningful discussions with Mavis Bank" that might lead to "some form of partnership to promote the Jablum brand in the UK market".

Levi Roots spent much of his early life in Jamaica with his grandmother before emigrating to England, where he parlayed recipes learnt here in a restaurant business and the development of a sauce.

He made a big breakthrough when entrepreneurs in the BBC 2 television show, Dragon's Den, helped to finance the commercial development of his sauces into what its now multimillion-pound business.

Levi Roots, who runs a café in London, also has his own television cooking show and is well known in England as a reggae singer.