Workers at the Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative's Moy Hall factory in St. Thomas sorting coffee beans.
-Damion Mitchell photos
Damion Mitchell, Farmers Weekly Co-ordinator
JUST FIVE years since the resuscitation of the coffee factory operated by the Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative in Moy Hall, St. Thomas, it has hit record high production, with 56,000 boxes of coffee in 2004 compared to 8,000 boxes in 1998.
Bankruptcy had halted its operations in 1997 as a result of what has been described by members of the current management team as the mismanagement of funds.
Unemployment levels rose, coffee production declined and farmers, who endeavoured to continue the tradition of cultivating the world famous berry from the Blue Mountains, were left with little or no markets for their harvest.
It was the farmers who felt the brunt of the closure of the Co-operative's factory the most and it was they who played a most integral role in its restarting.
NO COST
For one year, the farmers supplied coffee to the Co-operative at no cost, employees worked without accepting salaries, and subsequently the Government wrote off $20 million debt owed to the Coffee Industry Board by the Co-operative. Loans agencies also rescheduled the payments of outstanding debts.
O'Neil Blake has been managing the Co-operative's Moy Hall factory since 1998.
"This rebuilding has been a processes characterised by team work," he told Farmers Weekly on Wednesday.
He said that while there have been challenges, the successes of the Co-operative have been more overwhelming.
With the assistance of the Eastern Jamaica Agriculture Support Project funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union, some $12 million was spent to construct a barbecue, which is used for the drying of the coffee berry at the factory. Also, a coffee rehabilitation programme to benefit women and youth was instituted, and a fertiliser and Berry Borer Control programme undertaken.
And during the last five years, the Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative increased the number of Japanese buyers from one to three.
It has also installed dehumidifiers in its storeroom, which help to preserve the quality of the green coffee beans it produces.
According to Mr. Blake, the Co-operative has also established a programme to provide essential inputs for farmers on credit until they have produced their last crop.
"It's the best I have ever seen this place," said Erickson Crosdale, 65, who has been supplying the factory with coffee for more than 55 years. He said the benefits that farmers had gained were "tremendous," adding that the entity had facilitated many persons to sustain their families.
The Moy Hall Factory was established in 1951 with the late William Henry as the
Co-operative's first chairman. Currently, just over 120 persons are employed by the factory, 80 per cent of whom are women. More than 3,000 farmers supply coffee.
On Tuesday, the Co-operative signed a contract for a grant of $5.4 million from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica to establish a bio-digester to convert the pulp of the coffee into electricity.
This is expected to save millions of dollars in electricity bills, according to Rupert Scott, who chairs the Co-operative. The water used in the production of coffee will be used for irrigation and the husk of the beans used to make charcoal.
