Jablum launches beverage, instant coffee
Observer Business Reporter

Coffee producer, Jablum Jamaica yesterday launched an instant coffee product and a cold coffee beverage in a major diversification of its world premium roasted and ground Blue Mountain coffee.
The coffee drink won't be available on the market until July.

Jablum which has annual sales of US$12 million (over J$720 million) expects the new non-premium products not only to drive overall sales, but help it accelerate the expansion and broadening of its markets outside of Japan which for years has been its mainstay.

"This is the first time that Blue Mountain coffee is being offered as a bottled ready-to-drink beverage," declared Norman Grant, the general manager of Jablum, at yesterday's launch of the new products at the Mavis Bank, St Andrew factory.

"We expect that both the cost of the Blue Mountain instant coffee and the coffee beverage will be in line with similar products in the local markets," added Grant who is also a Jamaica Labour Party senator. Grant described the drink and powered coffee as "convenient and relatively inexpensive products".

Up until now, Jablum has sold roasted and ground coffee products, geared for the high-end of the market. It retails in Jamaica for up to US$12 per pound and is available at cafes and restaurants in Japan for up to US$5 per cup.

"The introduction of Jablum instant provides an opportunity to Mavis Bank Coffee Factory (MBCJ) and Jablum combined to diversify its product base and increase its revenue stream," said Grant who is also general manager of MBCJ, a company that shares directorship with Jablum.

The new products will apparently target the US market where Jamaican coffee producers have been making inroads. For example, seven years ago 90 per cent of all coffee export was to Japan.

"Today the quality of our export have increased proportionally and our company exports to Japan have reduced to 75 per cent with 20 per cent to the United States of America and five per cent to Europe," noted Grant.

Jablum controls approximately 60 per cent of the roasted beans and ground coffee marketed throughout Jamaica. The Mavis Bank Central Factory which supplies green beans to Jablum, exports 80 per cent of the coffee beans it produces and sells the rest to either Jablum for roasting or other companies.

Jablum (Jamaica Blue Mountain), harvests 35 per cent of Blue Mountain coffee produced from which 80 per cent is exported.

Coffee can be called Blue Mountain if it is farmed in the St Andrew Blue Mountain and in specified areas in St Thomas and Portland.

Jablum which buys coffee from some 6,000 farmer said that last year it allocated $20 million to help farmers purchase fertilizer and other inputs.

In 2001, MBCJ commissioned a US$3 million processing plant that increased its processing capacity from 725,000 to 1.8 million kilograms.

Both companies would have also benefited from a $3 billion package that the Ministry of Agriculture provided to the industry in 1998 to stave off its collapse.

Yesterday, agriculture minister, Roger Clarke who was at the opening said the state's intervention in the industry was now paying off.

"Sometime ago people were saying that Jablum and MBCJ would not survive," said Clarke. "Today it is now a trailblazer."

The minister said that the government recently launched several projects to assist coffee farmers.

"To date just under $30.3 million has been spent in implementing sub-projects which has resulted in the rehabilitation of just under 2,251 hectares of coffee, the establishment of just over 51 hectares of the crop, and the provision of assistance to 2,451 farmers," he said