Jamaica coffee farmers worry about drop in sales

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Producers of Jamaica's world-famous Blue Mountain coffee say thousands of gourmet beans are piling up after two of their largest buyers withdrew without explanation.

The government-owned Wallenford Coffee Company and privately run Coffee Traders stopped buying more than a week ago, according to Derrick Simon, spokesman for Jamaica's Coffee Growers Association.

"A lot of the buyers are withdrawing at this time," Simon said Friday. "It's absolutely unprecedented."
Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton said Wallenford would resume buying next week, but declined to explain what he says is a temporary halt in purchases.
Coffee Traders, a Kingston-based company, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The withdrawals come amid a global financial crisis that has driven down prices of raw material exports and slashed income at exporting companies across Latin America, a commodity-rich region.
Norman Grant, president of Jamaica's Agriculture Society, said Wallenford is facing "challenges" but declined to provide specifics.

Grant also is manager of Mavis Bank Central Factory, a top local purchaser of Blue Mountain coffee that he said has not lowered purchasing in recent weeks.
"We have remained in the market," he said. "We're still buying, and the product has not gone to waste."
Jamaica exported some 16,200 tons (15,000 metric tons) of Blue Mountain coffee last year. Mavis Bank and Wallenford account for 45 percent of exports, of which 85 percent is shipped to Japan.
Britain and the U.S. are the next biggest markets for the popular bean, which earns Jamaica US$30 million annually.
Christopher Gentles, executive director at the Coffee Industries Board, said farmers have nothing to fear.
"It's certainly not a crisis," he said. "Everything should be back to normal very soon."
An estimated 7,000 farmers sell Blue Mountain coffee to eight companies, including Wallenford, one of the largest purchasers along with Mavis Bank.

Farmers produce about 3,000 boxes of coffee a day, at a cost of US$46 a box. Blue Mountain is one of the most expensive coffee beans worldwide, selling for roughly US$30 a pound.
"If Wallenford does not start buying by next week, it is going to be hard for the farmers to find another buyer," Simon said.
The halt in purchases comes at the height of harvesting, which runs September through December.
Jamaica's coffee industry is still recovering from Hurricane Ivan, which devastated coffee fields in the Blue Mountain region in 2004.

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