Battered beans
Weather-weary coffee farmers push for assistance in replacing ageing trees
Published:Monday | December 22, 2025 | 12:08 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
Making a case for more meaningful support from the Government toward one of the country’s long-standing industries, Donald Salmon, president of the Jamaica Coffee Growers Association, says coffee farmers in the island have been facing a tough time with the bean over the past three years, as a result of the impacts of severe weather.
Salmon said weather patterns have left farmers reeling from inclement weather as well as the onslaughts of hurricanes Beryl, in 2024, and Melissa, in October this year.
“The mountains were significantly impacted by Melissa,” he told The Gleaner last week, noting that Wray Piece in Springhill, Portland remains blocked, preventing farmers from reaping what is left of their coffee.
In addition, he said Mount Holstein and the Mahoe areas of Portland are still blocked.
“If they reap, they have to take it to a far distance; no vehicle can drive there,” he added.
Highlighting the need for urgent support for small coffee farmers, Salmon said about 80 per cent of them produce on three or fewer acres of land and, in many instances, are squatting or do not have a title for the property and, as such, cannot present any collateral to borrow.
He said one of the problems facing the sector is that the productivity per acre is very low.
“We could use half the land that we are using to produce more than what we are producing now.”
Dr Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association (JCEA), who brought greetings at the handover of fertilisers to coffee farmers last week in Kingston, urged the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining to have a full rollout of the Coffee Crop Resuscitation and Establishment Programme (CREP).
He said the programme, which was presented to the ministry last year by the JCEA and the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority (JACRA), should be allocated $300 million per annum for five years to provide a million coffee seedlings, fertiliser, chemicals, tools, pumps and cash grants to 5,000 coffee farmers over the next two years.
“I think the idea of the CREP programme was to move our production from about 200,000 boxes to 450,000 boxes, and our productivity from 30 boxes per acre to 90 boxes per acre,” he said.
Grant said that, unlike some countries that have replaced their coffee trees after five years, many local farmers have had their plants for close to 30 years.
“I am saying that the CREP programme needs to do this,” he noted.
Grant also said a sustained programme for maintaining farm roads and river training was necessary to ensure the resilience and growth of the coffee industry.
Acting director general of JACRA, Wayne Hunter, said steps were being made to roll out the CREP with some 10,000 seedlings ready for High Mountain coffee.
“Seedlings for the Blue Mountain are coming along quite nicely as well. We now have another 15,000 planting material ready to be rolled out in the upcoming planting season in April next year,” he said.
The JACRA head said CREP is supposed to deliver 1,720 acreage of new plants, which is equivalent to approximately 1.5 million new trees over four years.