By Alecia Smith
KINGSTON, Jamaica, (JIS) – The development of cottage industries to support the production of coffee by-products, including beverages, is one strategy Jamaica can employ to bring more visitors to the island, says tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett.
He said that Jamaica is in a “good position”, as the producer of some of the world’s finest coffee, to tantalise the tastebuds of visitors, many of whom come to the island in search of a satisfying gastronomical experience.
He noted that coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world, with 1.2 billion cups drunk daily, and Jamaica can fulfil a portion of this demand.
“It is possible… for us to develop… cottage industries around coffee, and we can bring in the players from all over the world in the same way that foodies travel all over the world [for this experience],” he said.
He noted that the government is prepared to invest in building Jamaica’s capacity to deliver high-quality coffee experiences.
The minister was addressing the launch of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival on Tuesday, March 2 at the Jamaica Food and Drink Kitchen located at Progressive Plaza on Barbican Road in St Andrew.
Minister Bartlett said that the annual festival is part of a strategy to utilise gastronomy tourism “to bring the world” to the island. He noted that 42 percent of the expenditure of visitors globally is in food and drink.
“We want to bring coffee aficionados to Jamaica and that’s… the whole idea of having this festival…We want to market that, we want to open destinations with that as a drawing card,” he pointed out.
In his remarks, minister of agriculture and fisheries, Pearnel Charles Jr., said that the ministry is committed to the development of the coffee industry.
“The ministry, through the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Authority (JACRA)…we are going to make sure that we do what is necessary to give support to our farmers,” he noted.
A flagship event of the ministry of tourism, the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival, which is now in its fifth staging, seeks to leverage gastronomy tourism as a medium for diversifying the Jamaican tourism product.
Festival activities will be held throughout the month of March to showcase Blue Mountain Coffee and coffee-related products and will bring together local and international coffee connoisseurs, coffee suppliers, foodies and other interested parties.
Among the events are farm tours, virtual workshops and seminars, a ‘sip and shop’, and promotion of the Blue Mountain Culinary Trail.
The festival culminates on April 2 with a Festival Marketplace on the lawns of Devon House.
The Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival is organised by the Tourism Linkages Network, a division of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), in collaboration with the ministry of industry, investment and commerce, and the ministry of agriculture and fisheries.
It aims to support coffee industry stakeholders, the private sector, and community businesses in the Blue Mountains and strengthen links between the agriculture and tourism industries.
