Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill wants to see greater distribution of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee to foreign-owned hotels in Jamaica.

The minister called for increased exports, including local exports, which is the sale of coffee to the hotel industry, while offering remarks at the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival launch on Wednesday, January 9 at Devon House in St Andrew.

“I am totally committed to help growing a lot more Jamaican coffee and especially Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee for exports around the world—yes, continuing with Japan; yes, continuing with the United States; yes, exporting more to Switzerland, more to China, more to everywhere else. And even in the United States and Japan where we’re established, I need to see a lot more export going there,” Hill said.

He added that he is ready to partner with the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining to have more Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee in the hotels, whether in the form of a kiosk, a table or on shelves of the gift shops.

“It might be a nice big kiosk, it might be an elegant table, but it must have Blue Mountain coffee. There are hotels in this country that don’t have Blue Mountain coffee [and] that is unacceptable. And they’re great hotels [so] we must go to them and make sure they keep it there,” the minister outlined.

In a bid to increase the penetration of Blue Mountain coffee in hotels, Hill said that he has a liaison who goes to hotels and reports which ones do not offer the commodity. While adding that he wants to change this trend with the help of the Tourism Linkages Council, he highlighted Sri Lanka as a model that could be followed.

Hill recalled that when he was a young banker who was tasked with establishing an American bank in Sri Lanka, which is known for its teas, most hotels carried Sri Lankan-grown and manufactured teas. On this note, he said that players in the local coffee industry should not just focus on exporting externally but also to the north coast where most foreign-owned hotels operate.

Responding to Minister Hill’s call, master of ceremonies Nicola Madden-Greig—who is also the chair of the Tourism Linkages Council’s gastronomy committee and an active member of Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA)—said that efforts to increase linkages between the coffee industry and the hospitality have been established and is being strengthened.

“The hotel association has long been in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and our Linkages Network to push the use of all sorts of Jamaican foods and products throughout our hotels. We’re not fully there yet in terms of 100 per cent but we are definitely far, far, far down the wicket and we look forward to continuing to grow this partnership and continuing to enhance Jamaican gastronomy throughout all our hotels,” she shared.

“The other element that I think has been growing, and we have worked with JAMPRO on this, is the introduction of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in all our gift shops,” Madden-Greig continued.

She added that events like the Tourism Linkages Network Speed Networking and Christmas in July have helped to facilitate the expansion of coffee sales in hotels as they offer opportunities to network purchasing officers and managers. Also contributing to the discourse, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green told Our Today that he and officials in his ministry have been meeting with the Tourism Ministry and the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC) to ensure that hotels can, as best as possible, source local agricultural produce including Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee.

“We have had discussions about some of the structures that need to change in terms of the buying habits [of hotels] and credit terms and things of that nature that would make it more accessible for our agricultural producers,” he explained.

The agriculture minister added that through collaboration with MIIC, there are efforts to get more agricultural produce into nearshore markets by working with the hotels.