The government wants to encourage the consumption of genuine Jamaican food products globally, hence the “Eat Jamaican Global Campaign” will be extended into specific markets in the US, Canada, and the UK.
“The global campaign started this month in Florida,” Floyd Green, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining, told reporters at the recent Eat Jamaican Month Cook-Off and Farmers Market at the Ministry’s Hope Complex in Kingston.
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Green stated, “We had our first outing on this global campaign in South Florida. The plan now is to go into the other areas during the year… [towards] Eat Jamaican 2025. We will be going to New York, Canada, and the United Kingdom.”
The minister pointed out that “Eat Jamaican Month is celebrated annually every November. Eat Jamaica Day is celebrated on the 25th of November. What we decided to do this year is to take the show on the road, and largely target our main diaspora centers to achieve a number of things”.
Green explained that although the campaign encourages the purchasing of Jamaican goods, it would also have a public education element to help the diaspora recognize genuine Jamaican commodities.
Green noted, “It is important that we continue to push Eat Jamaican because one of our priorities is to drive exports and the best way to drive exports is to ensure that the diaspora is supporting the items that you are growing here locally. We continue to push that message.”
He added, “One of the challenges that we do have abroad is that manufacturers claim to be making Jamaican products because ours command a higher price and have a better flavor profile, and we need our diaspora members to be able to identify and differentiate our products”.
According to Green, the ministry will collaborate with the consuls, “to go into those spaces that carry authentic Jamaican items, and those restaurants that use authentic Jamaican products and publish those. We are putting together a database with that information”.
An additional component of the ‘Eat Jamaican Global Campaign’ is to encourage the diaspora to invest in Jamaica.
Green stated, “We are seeing good uptake not just from the Caribbean diaspora, but also the African diaspora. The best way to promote eating Jamaican is growing Jamaican, so we need to see more diaspora members investing in the sector especially, as we continue to build out new agro-parks and see other emerging opportunities. The diaspora in the United States and the UK are well positioned to invest in agriculture.”
