Juliet Holness, the member of parliament for East Rural St Andrew and wife of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, wants coffee to be served at every tourist attraction across the country.

Making her contibution to the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representatives recently, Mrs Holness made the call, appealing to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and Agriculture Minister Audley Shaw to assist in making this happen.

Coffee farmers have been experiencing a decline in prices and are also experiencing several other hindrances which Mrs Holness said have plagued the constituency she represents. She has begun to take steps to assist the farmers with the issues they have been having.

In addition to wanting the coffee to be served at all tourist attractions, Mrs Holness wants coffee to be offered to every cruise ship passenger who disembarks the ports across the country.

“Visitors should not only see and feel the best of Jamaica but should also taste the best of Jamaica. We are reinforcing the supply side for coffee, but on the demand side, we continue to advocate that in order to boost demand and to create additional value chain opportunities for local farmers, Blue Mountain Coffee should be served in Jamaica,” she told Shaw and Bartlett.

The first ever coffee symposium was held in response to the numerous challenges brought on by the coffee industry, where all the issues surrounding coffee were examined. Farmers from Rural St Andrew, Portland and St Thomas were present along with stakeholders, where they consulted on strategies and value-added solutions for the industry.

Mrs Holness said the recommendations have been put in place and and assurances that the local farmers will be assisted have been made.

“I have made recommendations for all the observed deficiencies to the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority [JACRA] and have received several assurances that they will explore utilising their knowledge of the contract prices in Japan to establish a price index mechanism to assist local farmers in determining a reasonable range of prices for their produce,” Mrs Holness shared.