Coffee farmers in the dark about overdue payment

"NOBODY COME out and say anything. They just leave the farmers in the dark, and that's very unacceptable," Derrick Simon, president of the All Island Jamaica Coffee Growers' Association told The Gleaner recently.

He was speaking about, among other things, the long-overdue final payment to some Blue Mountain coffee farmers given that the crop year ended in May. This has severely impacted the ability of some farmers to prepare for the new crop year, which started in July, and which has left many restive, while others have neglected their farms.

Donovan Stanberry, permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, on Friday reportedly told a delegation from the association that the ministry was negotiating with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide some financial assistance.

"He merely said that he is trying to see if they can hammer out an agreement with the USAID for some funding that he expects to come on stream in September, where the farmers could be assisted in inputs," Simon reported.

The divestment of Wallenford Coffee Company Limited, due to be completed by October, has many farmers worried as they have not been paid. In addition, they do not know what, if any, changes will be implemented by the new owners, and this uncertainty is cause for concern.

Simon is also of the view that in addition to capital investment to improve the planting and processing of Blue Mountain coffee beans, there is need for an equal intellectual investment in moving the industry forward and ensuring that Jamaica earns much more from this specialty agricultural crop.

"Production has fallen off a little bit more than slightly, I would say, and until we can identify proper markets, along with a proper marketing campaign, retrofit our factories - not only internally where machinery is concerned, but retrofit with the concept of the imperative of a value-added chain - the coffee industry is doomed," he warned.

The coffee farmer lamented that for too long, Jamaica has only been selling coffee beans, the primary product from the crop. "We have to be now selling a roasted product, a finished product, a value-added product, which can fetch an appreciably better price and that is now going to be the means for the farmer staying in business.

"That's a must if the industry is going to survive, and when we penetrate, or try to penetrate, new markets, that must be a central theme. It cannot be business as usual," he insisted.

Another concern for the growers' association is what will become of the Wallenford brand after divestment, and who will own this brand which they, the farmers, have been instrumental in developing over the years. It is a matter they plan to take up with Agriculture Minister Robert Montague.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com