Byron McDaniel, Gleaner Writer

Walderston, Manchester:

The Coffee Industry Board (CIB) last Friday distributed cheques and inputs amounting to $15 million in the form of a grant earmarked for the resuscitation of non-Blue Mountain coffee.

The money was handed over to coffee farmers' cooperatives and marketing companies at the Kendal Conference Centre in Manchester for distribution to farmers whose operation was in need of rehabilitation. The allocation to the various groups was made in denominations of $75,000, $45,000 and $25,000 based on the groups' level of production.

The coffee farmers will also be assisted with inputs and technical advice as part of the rehabilitation of the island's non-Blue Mountain coffee holdings.

Cooperatives in crisis

"Today the cooperatives are in crisis with falling production and revenue," Graham Dunkley, the director general of the CIB, noted at the function. "They operate in a liberalised economy where they are faced with competing demands for the attention of the farmers," he added.

One example, he cited, was the constant distraction of farmers being lured into growing other crops by state agencies such as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).

However, even with assistance being given by the CIB, some farmers were blatantly critical of the way the coffee regulatory body was operating. Chairman of the Eastern St. Ann Coffee Growers Society, Major Amin Jalaal, was quick to register his disappointment with the CIB.

Major Jalaal, a United States-Iraqi war veteran turned coffee farmer, pointed out that "as the demand for coffee increases our production decreases, while the cooperatives stand by helplessly, due to a lack of funding." He lamented that this was happening while "the CIB seemingly sits idly by while the lowland coffee industry dies."

Mr. Dunkley, however, assured farmers that the CIB was committed to revitalising the industry, but with the cooperation of farmers.