Editorial | Grasp the brand!

In the face of the uncertainties caused by Donald Trump’s tariff war against the world, a little noted domestic development may offer one potential path for Jamaica to navigate the crisis.

Last week, the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA) announced that it is on the cusp of launching a blockchain traceability and regulatory platform, which will allow end-users to trace commodities through the supply chain, from farm to shelf.

Citing an example, JACRA’s public relations and communications specialist, Kenrick Morgan, told the government’s Jamaica Information Service: “Seventy per cent of our coffee goes to Japan. On the barrels of the coffee that go out, we’ll have QR codes. Persons will be able to scan, see who the farmer is, where the farmer is located, what the farm is like and everything else related. We’re hoping to roll that out a little bit later this year.”

This is a big deal!

First, as Mr Morgan explained, it is a way of authenticating Jamaican products. Which also means additional insulation for geographical indications.

But, more critically in these times, it is a platform which can help Jamaica to, as Diane Edwards suggested in a column on Sunday, leverage its mystique and brand cache in delivering not mass but quality products, to discerning and niche markets where demand may be less price elastic.

GREATER URGENCY

This has greater urgency in the face of Mr Trump’s tariffs and his disruption of the global trading order. As part of an agenda aimed, he says, at enticing manufacturing jobs to go to America, as well as to ensure reciprocity in trade, the US president imposed a 10 per cent base tariff on all products entering the United States. Then, he added additional amounts to various countries to meet what he claimed was their effective duties on American products.

For instance, there is a 145 per cent tariff on most goods from China – against which Beijing has retaliated – as a 25 per cent duty on motor vehicles and steel from next-door neighbour, and supposed free-trade partner, Canada.

Jamaica, which previously enjoyed duty-free access for almost all exports to the US, now faces the 10 per cent base rate. That could make some products uncompetitive.

And it is not just the US that is now potentially problematic. No one is certain what trading order will emerge from the chaos Mr Trump has wrought.

For Jamaica, the situation demands new strategies.

As Ms Edwards, a former head of the government’s trade and investment promotion agency, observed in The Sunday Gleaner article: “Jamaica does not have the landmass, scale, or labour force to compete with low-cost, high-volume producers. Competing on cost is futile. But competing on value? That’s our arena.

“When you brand a product well, you control the narrative. You move from being a commodity supplier to a lifestyle curator. You’re not selling yams, you’re selling ‘Jamaican Gold’, grown in rich volcanic soil, by multi-generational farmers, with flavours rooted in heritage. That positioning allows you to price higher, justify the premium, and soften the blow of duties and logistics costs.”

NOT A NEW CONCEPT

This is not a new concept for Jamaica. It has been done before. JACRA’s Mr Morgan noted the island’s Blue Mountain coffee. Ms Edwards pointed to Appleton Rum and the Sandals hotel chain – commodities and services that have stored tremendous equity in their brands.

Jamaica’s unique image on the global stage, plus the fact of the quality of many of its products – ginger, cocoa, condiments, and so on – suggests that it can be replicated elsewhere.

In this case, as Ms Edwards argued, “Scarcity, often seen as a disadvantage, can be a branding asset”.

But this won’t just happen, not by merely slapping a barcode on a barrel or on a product’s packaging. It has to be worked in a sustained fashion, as part of a clearly defined industrial policy, such as this newspaper has promoted.

This must include government policies that support global marketing, innovation, investment and enhanced productivity, in all its aspects. It also requires, with respect to farming, that producers can’t lose up to a fifth of what they grow, which, for small-scale entities, is economically unsustainable. In other words, in this scenario, attacking farm theft, and dealing with it as organised crime, must be an urgent priority.

This project, most of all, requires a national consensus, led by the government but involving the private sector, labour organisations, research and education institutions, civil society groups, and the political opposition.

And there is no time to be lost, lest the opportunity is squandered.