KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that the Tourism Linkages Network will be spearheading a series of activities to help increase local consumption of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the tourism sector, while also finding strategic ways to decrease the high-level of coffee imports to the island.
Bartlett was speaking at the launch of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston on January 23, 2018.
The Minister revealed that the first major activity by the Linkages Network, to directly assist the coffee industry, is the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival which is scheduled to take place from March 23 to 25, 2018 in Newcastle St. Andrew.
The festival will feature workshops for coffee farmers, exhibitor booths, food demonstration, a barista completion and opportunities to purchase coffee products. It also targets coffee connoisseurs, investors and suppliers from regional and international markets – including Cayman, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, USA, Europe, and Canada.
The Minister shared that “a core part of the strategy is to ensure that more earnings from the industry are retained locally to aid in increasing the production of coffee. Not only do festivals attract visitors, thus stimulating tourism, but they also promote growth and create more business opportunities for people in the communities.”
