Blue Mountain Coffee Break

Aubyn Hill, Financial Gleaner Columnist

A number of factors have brought us to this desperate economic juncture, one that we often overlook is the opportunities which we have missed.

Securing Geographic Indications (GI) for our Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee -- and Jamaican jerk and Jamaican rum -- are seriously missed opportunities.

According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), geographic indications are “place names (in some countries also words associated with a place) used to identify the origin and quality, reputation or other characteristics of products (for example, ‘Champagne’, ‘Tequila’, or ‘Roquefort’).

The use of a GI may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, is made according to traditional methods, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin is how Wikipedia explains the concept.
Coffee was introduced to Jamaica in 1728. About 1948 the specific areas in which coffee called “Blue Mountain” can be grown were identified.

Only coffee grown at elevations between 3,000 and 5,000 feet in the parishes of St Andrew, St Thomas, Portland and St Mary can be called Jamaica Blue Mountain.

The Coffee Industry Board (CIB) was established “to maintain and standardise the quality and consistency” of exported coffee. The CIB processes and promotes three types of coffees: Jamaica Blue Mountain, Jamaica High Mountain Supreme and Jamaica Prime. Blue Mountain coffee is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), protected as a certification trademark with the Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom.

In spite of all that good work by the CIB, our Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee is not registered as a GI.
In 2006/07, Jamaica accepted a grant of J$75 million from the Swiss government to prepare ourselves for GI registrations. Working with local officials and businesses, the Swiss and Jamaicans arrived at three products which could attain GI status -- Blue Mountain Coffee, Jamaica Rum and Jamaican Jerk.

Swiss experts came in and trained members of the judiciary, RADA, the Chief Parliamentary Council, the Bureau of Standards, the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) and executives and practitioners in the rum, coffee and jerk industries.
The Swiss were especially complimentary about how well the CIB had protected the quality and brand of Blue Mountain Coffee. Executives from all three industries were trained in Switzerland and France.

A GI designation is sought by many nations and communities to protect their products and enhance significantly the welfare of all the participants in the production chain, from poor multitudinous and under-capitalised small farmers to well capitalised processors.

So why have we lagged far behind in securing the GI designation for Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee? Is it a feature of too narrow self-interest on the part of some processors and marketing businesses? Is it a lack of organisation of small farmers and their workers and ignorance of the benefits of GI? Is it just the Government of Jamaica and the Ministry of Agriculture missing another opportunity for which they hold the scalpel of legislative and regulatory change?

OLD LAW

When the Swiss experts arrived in 2008 they quickly concluded that Blue Mountain coffee would be the first of the three products to achieve GI designation. Apparent lack of agreement, even disagreements, between the chain of producers -- growers, processors and marketers -- has stymied the work needed to achieve the status.

Our Swiss donors looked at the excellent organisation and work of the CIB and surmised that coffee would lead rum and jerk to the finish line.

As it happens, it appears that the coffee producers became fissiparous, while the scattered and amorphous jerk producers and sellers organised themselves, got their act together and are now racing the rum producers to the finish line which could happen anytime now.

The rum producers were always well organised and used their Spirits Pool Association to propel them to securing GI designation for their product.

Apart from their inability to agree, the coffee producers have a legal impediment that tends to encourage division among the producers. Article 2, Subsection (b) of the Coffee Industry Regulation Act of 1953 states: “Blue Mountain blend means any coffee or coffee product comprising blue mountain coffee in such proportion as to account for not less than 20 per centum of its weight”. That statement has fostered a willingness to ‘dilute’ the Blue Mountain Coffee product.

Those who understand geographic indications know that this law has to change to require the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee brand to be used on coffee products which contain 100 per cent Blue Mountain Coffee.

Indeed, Jamaica could get a second coffee GI designation for Jamaica High Mountain Coffee.

CHINESE PEACHES AND EPA

Pinggu peaches are grown in a small district of the same name just northeast of Beijing. Small farmers as unorganised producers with no capital -- like some Jamaican coffee growers -- and little know-how band themselves into designated and identifiable geographic indication.

Registration and use of trademarks and GIs became a key tool in increasing farmers’ incomes and accelerating agricultural industrialisation.

Pinggu peach became the first agricultural product to have its GI registration in China in 2002. In 2007 China and the EU signed an agreement under the Madrid Protocol -- Jamaica needs to sign this too -- to have Pinggu peaches sold in 25 countries in the Eurozone.

After its PR campaign, the price of these Pinggu peaches increased 30 per cent and premium fruits sold for double the price.

In the 1950s, Columbian coffee was the first commodity to be branded as a product. Columbia’s coffee producers have 15 brands in their portfolio. Indian Darjeeling tea and Basmati rice are all GI protected products.

The Economic Partnership Agreement we have with Europe states this on GIs: “The signature CARIFORUM states shall establish a system of protection of geographic indications in their respective territories no later than 1 January 2014”.
One hopes common sense will breed unity between coffee producers to achieve GI success soon.

Aubyn Hill is the CEO of Corporate Strategies Limited and was an international banker for more than 25 years.
Email: writerhill@gmail.com
Twitter: @HillAubyn
Facebook: facebook.com/Corporate.Strategies