Has Jamaica Exported Green Coffee Beans to Mainland China - Where Do Chinese Jamaican Coffee Beans Come From

The answer is: of course Jamaica exports coffee.

According to data from the World Trade Organization and China Customs, Jamaica's total annual global coffee exports over the past 5 years were as follows:

2011: 842 tons
2012: 592 tons
2013: 692 tons
2014: 449 tons
2015: 555 tons

China's import volume over the same 5 years was as follows:

2011: 19 tons
2012: 17 tons
2013: 3 tons
2014: 2 tons
2015: 2 tons

(All figures are official statistics, for reference only.)

China's import trade volume looks almost negligible on a national scale. Yet its trade value still entered the top 20, ranking 17th. After all, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is so expensive, at a standard of over 10,000 yuan per container, that not every player can afford to import entire containers into China.

Major Importers of Jamaican Coffee

So where do the major buyers of Jamaican coffee come from? For 2015, the top 10 were as follows:

First place: Japan - 366 tons (overwhelmingly champion for 5 consecutive years)
Second place: United States - 94 tons
Third place: United Kingdom - 32 tons
Fourth place: Germany - 17 tons
Fifth place: Belgium - 16 tons
Sixth place: South Korea - 10 tons
Seventh place: Sweden - 6 tons
Eighth place: Canada - 4 tons
Ninth place: China - 2 tons
Tenth place: Chinese Taipei - 2 tons

Why is Jamaican Blue Mountain So Highly Sought After?

The Blue Mountains lie in the eastern part of Jamaica. Because the range is surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, whenever the weather is clear the direct sunlight strikes the azure water and the peak reflects the brilliant blue light of the sea, which is how the mountains got their name.

The highest peak of the Blue Mountains reaches 2,256 meters, making it the highest point in the Caribbean and a famous tourist destination. The area sits in the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil, fresh, unpolluted air, a humid climate, and year-round fog and rain (average precipitation of 1,980 mm, temperature around 27 degrees C). That climate, together with the very high altitude, created the world-renowned Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and the world's second most expensive coffee as well.

Why is There So Much Jamaican Blue Mountain in China?

Why is Jamaican Blue Mountain so abundant in China that it can be found everywhere on Taobao, Tmall, in physical stores, and in supermarkets?

First, check whether the package is labeled "Blue Mountain flavor" or "Blue Mountain blend." These usually are not genuine Jamaican Blue Mountain; they merely skirt the edge of the rules, much like Chinese-flavored restaurants in Europe, America, and Australia that are not trustworthy.

Customs Code and Information

The customs code for raw coffee beans is 0901110000. You can log in to the General Administration of Customs, register a username, and search for the answers you want by import/export country and year. As long as you confirm the customs code, this method can turn up a great deal of import and export information for the corresponding product.

Note: this trial version allows only 10 queries per username per month, or you can pay to become a member.

Jamaican Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Jamaican coffee, the Blue Mountain No.1, is fully guaranteed in both brand and quality. More importantly, it offers extremely high value. A 100-gram package costs only about 158 yuan. At 15 grams of coffee per cup, one package makes 6 cups, or only about 25 yuan per cup. Compared with cafes selling a cup for over 100 yuan, this is a genuinely conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

With supply so limited and imitations so common, the certification behind a Blue Mountain purchase matters as much as the bean itself. Genuine FrontStreet Blue Mountain coffee comes from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and carries a certificate issued by the Jamaican government together with a certificate of origin. Traditionally it is shipped in wooden barrels printed with detailed batch information for the green beans, and those barrels are themselves one of the ways to tell a real lot from a fake.

The FrontStreet Blue Mountain No.1 is the highest grade, from the long-established Clifton Estate, where coffee has been grown since around the middle of the eighteenth century. The estate's growing and processing area sits at an average of 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters), where sufficient altitude, gentle afternoon cloud that shades the trees, ample sunlight, and mineral-rich soil together create good growing conditions and lengthen the ripening of the cherries. Authentic green beans are neat and plump, with slightly raised ends and a green color.

FrontStreet Blue Mountain is roasted within 5 days of your order, so it arrives full of flavor and can be brewed right away, using a medium-dark roast that emphasizes body and the classic sweet-after-bitterness character. FrontStreet Coffee suggests a Kono dripper, 15g of coffee rested 4-7 days from the roast date, a grind slightly coarser than a light roast and about the size of white sugar, and water at 87-88 degrees C. Pour in three stages at a 1:15 ratio: 30g for a 30-second bloom, then to 120g with a slow, small, vertical circular stream, then to 225g with a slightly faster stream so the bed does not clog and over-extract. The cup is very clean and complex, gentle and mellow, with chocolate sweetness and a strong body, balancing sweetness, acidity, and bitterness and finishing with a lasting fruit note.