A history of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee

Coffee reached Jamaica in 1728, when Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes planted a few seedlings at Temple Hall in St Andrew. Exports peaked in 1814 and fell sharply after emancipation. A Coffee Industry Board was set up in 1950 to rehabilitate the industry. Japan began buying in 1953 and became the largest buyer from 1967. JACRA took over regulation in 2018.

This page sets out the main dates first, then explains them. Each date is taken from a source listed at the foot of the page. Where sources disagree, we say so.

Timeline of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee

1. 1728 Governor Sir Nicholas Lawes plants coffee seedlings at Temple Hall, his property in St Andrew.
2. 1814 Jamaica exports more than 34 million pounds (about 15 million kilograms) of coffee, the largest quantity on record.
3. 1834 Slavery is abolished on 1 August and a period of apprenticeship begins.
4. 1838 Full emancipation on 1 August. Many coffee plantations are later abandoned and coffee becomes largely a smallholders' crop.
5. 1923 Victor and Edna Munn found Mavis Bank Coffee Factory in the Blue Mountains of St Andrew.
6. 1943 Canadian importers refuse to buy Jamaican coffee because of its poor quality. A. J. Wakefield is asked to recommend how to rehabilitate the industry.
7. 1948 The Coffee Industry Regulation Act is passed.
8. 1950 The Coffee Industry Board is established on 2 June under the 1948 Act.
9. 1953 Mavis Bank ships three barrels of green coffee to Tokyo in March. UCC Ueshima Coffee Company becomes the first Japanese company to buy coffee directly from Jamaica.
10. 1967 A shipment of 1,400 bags leaves for Japan on 9 January. From this point Japan is the largest buyer of Jamaican coffee.
11. 1981 UCC buys Craighton House and Craighton Estate in St Andrew and re-establishes coffee there.
12. 1982 Mavis Bank Coffee Factory launches its JABLUM brand of roasted coffee.
13. 2000 The coffee industry is formally deregulated. The Coffee Industry Board keeps its licensing, certification and advisory roles.
14. 2004 Output reaches 530,000 boxes of cherry, a figure the agriculture ministry later cited as a recent high.
15. 2013 The government sells its majority interest in Wallenford Coffee Company to Michael Lee-Chin's AIC International Investments.
16. 2015 UNESCO inscribes the Blue and John Crow Mountains on the World Heritage List on 3 July.
17. 2016 Specialty Coffee Investments, also controlled by Michael Lee-Chin, acquires Mavis Bank Coffee Factory.
18. 2017 The Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority Act is established on 14 March.
19. 2018 JACRA begins operating on 1 January and takes over the functions of the Coffee Industry Board.
20. 2019 The first Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day is observed on 9 January in Jamaica and Japan.
21. 2020 Mavis Bank Coffee Factory acquires the Wallenford brand.

How did coffee come to Jamaica?

Jamaican coffee began in a governor's grounds. In 1728 Sir Nicholas Lawes, then governor of the island, planted coffee seedlings at Temple Hall in St Andrew. The Gleaner's history of the industry says there were about eight seedlings and that they came from Martinique. A 2024 Gleaner commentary by Elizabeth Morgan gives seven. Other accounts name a different island of origin.

Cultivation spread steadily. Between 1728 and 1768 it was concentrated in the foothills of St Andrew, according to Morgan. It later moved higher into the Blue Mountains and into other parishes, including Manchester, St Ann and St Elizabeth. The Gleaner also credits refugees from the Haitian Revolution, who brought experience of coffee growing, with part of the industry's growth.

The plantation era and the 1814 peak

Coffee was then a plantation crop, grown on estates worked by enslaved people. Morgan dates the peak of cultivation and export to the years 1800 to 1834. The largest recorded export came in 1814, when more than 34 million pounds of coffee, about 15 million kilograms, left the island.

The boom also damaged the land. The Gleaner records that poor land preparation and farming practices caused severe landslides and the loss of productive soils. Steep, easily eroded slopes remain a feature of Blue Mountain farming today.

Why did Jamaican coffee decline after emancipation?

Slavery was abolished in Jamaica on 1 August 1834, followed by a period of apprenticeship. Full emancipation came on 1 August 1838, as the Jamaica Information Service notes. Many formerly enslaved people then left the plantations. The Gleaner describes large-scale abandonment of coffee farms, and Morgan writes that production and exports declined dramatically.

Coffee survived, but as a smallholders' crop rather than a plantation one. That pattern still shapes the Blue Mountains. A 2025 Perfect Daily Grind report put the number of Blue Mountain farmers at close to 6,000 and said about 80% of Blue Mountain farms are under five acres. Most growers sell their cherry to licensed coffee works.

Quality suffered as well. The Gleaner says the industry reached a low point in 1943, when Canadian importers refused to buy Jamaican coffee because of its poor quality. A. J. Wakefield was asked to recommend how the industry could be rehabilitated. His central recommendation was a coffee board.

The Coffee Industry Board, 1950 to 2017

The Coffee Industry Regulation Act was passed in 1948. The Coffee Industry Board was established under it on 2 June 1950. JACRA describes its purpose as encouraging the development of the industry and promoting the welfare of the people who worked in it. The Gleaner adds that it was meant to protect the quality of Jamaican coffee after its reputation had declined.

The board shaped the modern Blue Mountain trade. It owned the registered trademarks Jamaica Blue Mountain and Jamaica High Mountain Supreme and was responsible for their integrity. JACRA records a formal deregulation of the industry in 2000. After that, the board licensed processors and dealers, set quality standards, certified coffee for export, acted as sole exporter of green beans and gave advice to growers.

Private processors grew alongside it. Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, founded in 1923 by Victor and Edna Munn, is described by the Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association as the country's largest fully integrated Blue Mountain coffee facility. The Jamaica Observer describes Keble Munn, who later ran the business, as Jamaica's first certified international cup tester.

How Japan became the main market for Blue Mountain coffee

Japan's link with Blue Mountain coffee dates from the early 1950s. The Observer records Mavis Bank's first export to Tokyo, three barrels of green coffee, in March 1953. Morgan notes that UCC Ueshima Coffee Company became the first Japanese company to buy coffee directly from Jamaica that year.

The turning point came on 9 January 1967, when a shipment of 1,400 bags was sent directly to Japan. Morgan describes it as the largest shipment and marks it as the point at which Japan became the largest buyer of Jamaican coffee. The date is now Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day. The Association of Japanese Importers of Jamaican Coffee asked Japan's government to recognize it, and the first observance was held on 9 January 2019.

Japanese investment followed. UCC bought Craighton House and Craighton Estate in St Andrew in 1981 and re-established coffee there. In 1982 Mavis Bank launched JABLUM, which the Observer credits as the first real effort to market Blue Mountain coffee as a roasted, value-added product rather than green beans. In January 2022 the agriculture minister put Japan's share of exports at about 70%, the United States at 20%, and Europe and the rest of the world at 10%.

JACRA and the modern Blue Mountain industry

The Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority Act dates from March 2017, and JACRA began operating on 1 January 2018. It merged the Coffee Industry Board with the Cocoa Industry Board, the regulatory functions of the Coconut Industry Board and the Export Division of the agriculture ministry. Its 2018 regulations define the Blue Mountain area by a boundary line and set out what may be sold as Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee or Blend. The trademarks are now owned by Coffee Marks Limited, a JACRA subsidiary. See certification and labels for detail.

Production has been uneven. The agriculture ministry cited 530,000 boxes of cherry in 2004 and 220,000 boxes in the 2021/22 crop year. The Jamaica Coffee Exporters Association, using slightly different figures, reported 285,000 boxes for 2022/23. It also said weather cost the industry at least 50,000 boxes in 2023/24.

Ownership has consolidated. Wallenford Coffee Company, previously majority-owned by the government, was sold to Michael Lee-Chin's AIC International Investments in 2013. His Specialty Coffee Investments acquired Mavis Bank in 2016, and Mavis Bank acquired the Wallenford brand in 2020. Profiles of these and other producers are in the estates directory.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains as World Heritage

On 3 July 2015 UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in Bonn for its 39th session, inscribed the Blue and John Crow Mountains on the World Heritage List. It was Jamaica's first World Heritage Site and the first mixed cultural and natural site in the Caribbean sub-region. The listing recognizes both the mountain landscape and the heritage of the Maroon communities who lived there.

Coffee is grown mainly on the lower and middle slopes, while the highest ground remains forested. The Blue Mountain region page explains how farms and protected forest sit side by side.

Where to read next

• Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee: the field guide, the overview of this site.
• From cherry to cup, on how the coffee is processed.
• Grading, on what No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and Peaberry mean.
• Jamaican coffee culture, on coffee in everyday Jamaican life.
• The glossary, for terms such as coffee works, barbecue and box.