Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, known as the best of coffee, during the heyday of Blue Mountain coffee, due to its rarity, high quality and unique flavor, is a treasure that coffee lovers are competing to pursue.
Currently, the local new season coffee beans are in the picking period, and about 30% have been harvested so far. However, recently, Jamaica has encountered extreme weather and other impacts, and the output of the main producing areas is not optimistic. According to estimates, the output of coffee beans this year will be 25% lower than the same period last year.
It is understood that the town of Mavis Bank and the surrounding mountainous areas are an important base for growing Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. However, in recent months, this area has been affected by heavy rain and earthquakes, resulting in loose soil and a number of mudslides and landslides in the mountainous area, which has seriously affected local coffee planting and harvesting. Therefore, the chairman of the Jamaican Agricultural Association said that this has caused huge losses. In the Blue Mountain area, climate change is a matter of great concern for them, and road conditions and infrastructure are also issues that need to be paid close attention to.
Moreover, in the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee production area, it takes 8 to 10 months for Blue Mountain coffee trees to bloom, pollinate, and mature into coffee beans, and the growing conditions are very demanding. Because the bean variety is relatively fragile, it is vulnerable to diseases and pests. Moreover, for many years, the coffee beans on Blue Mountain have always been picked by hand, which can effectively collect mature red cherry fruits, and can avoid the problem of mixing unripe or overripe fruits during mechanical harvesting. However, many coffee plantations on Blue Mountain are not connected by roads, and picking and transportation operations can only rely on workers to walk back and forth along the rugged trails. Therefore, under the influence of the recent heavy rain weather, mudslides and landslides have damaged the road up the mountain, affecting the harvest.
In addition, due to the rainy weather, the coffee trees were affected during the early flowering and fruiting seasons. Heavy rain will knock down flowers and fruits, ultimately resulting in a reduction in yield. According to statistics, the current loss has reached 50,000 barrels of 32-kilogram coffee beans.
However, earlier, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica announced at the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Festival that the Crop Recovery and Establishment Program (CREP) will be implemented at the beginning of the Jamaican fiscal year (the fiscal year is from April 1 to March 31 of the following year), which will benefit more than 5,000 coffee farmers in Jamaica. At the same time, it will promote the production and export of coffee.
This CREP plan will invest billions of dollars to strengthen and establish coffee gardens, and re-plant coffee plants within 5 years to produce Jamaican Blue Mountain and alpine varieties. In addition, farmers will be trained to increase their productivity, and attempts will be made to attract new investors and young people to join the industry. The ultimate goal is to increase productivity and reach an annual output of 450,000 barrels of 32-kilogram coffee beans.
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