Aloha,

I just got news from my buddy coffee grower in Jamaica that the website for The Jamaican Coffee Industry Board (CIB) is up. (still partially under construction). But it has a ton of information which was never published on the web before! This particular website is also the primary purchasing contact for coffee brokers and roasters. Very thorough PowerPoint presentations on the home page.

Jamaican coffees have a very different history, underlying legal structure, only centralized processing, and not quite the farmer diversity the Kona coffee industry has. Yet we share many problems e.g. trademarking and enforceable protection of the name, distribution, markets, quality control, inspections, advertising, pesticide residue testing, fraud, coffee pests, erosion control.

Most interesting from us trademark concerned Kona coffee farmers is their analysis that if Jamaican Blue Mountain would NOT be trademark protected, they would look at only USD 4 mil. instead of $30 mil. income! Now one can see why Ethiopia put up that trademarking fight over their regions with Starbucks.