KINGSTON, Jamaica – The global “Eat Jamaican” campaign is to be expanded to targeted markets in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK), as the government seeks to promote the consumption of authentic Jamaican food products all over the world.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mines Floyd Green told JIS News during the Eat Jamaican Month Cook Off and Farmers Market held at the ministry’s Hope Complex in Kingston on Friday that the campaign world began this month in Florida.

“We made our first participation in this global campaign in South Florida. The plan now is to go to other areas during the year… (towards) Eat Jamaican 2025. We will go to New York, Canada and the United Kingdom,” he said.

The Minister highlighted that “Jamaican Consumer Month is celebrated every year in November. Eat Jamaica Day is celebrated on November 25. What we decided to do this year is to take the show on the road and widely target our main diaspora centers to achieve a number of things.”

Green explained that while the campaign promotes the consumption of Jamaican products, it will also include a public education component to help the diaspora identify authentic Jamaican products.

“It is important that we continue to promote Eat Jamaican because one of our priorities is to boost exports and the best way to boost exports is to ensure that the diaspora supports the products that you grow here locally. We continue to send this message,” said the minister.

He said “one of the challenges we face overseas is that manufacturers claim to make Jamaican products because ours are more expensive and have a better flavor profile, and we need members of our diaspora are able to identify and differentiate our products. “.

He said the ministry would work with consuls “to go to spaces that offer authentic Jamaican products and restaurants that use authentic Jamaican products and post them. We are in the process of building a database with this information.”

Another element of the global “Eat Jamaican” campaign is to encourage the diaspora to invest in Jamaica.

“We are seeing good adoption not only from the Caribbean diaspora, but also from the African diaspora. The best way to promote Jamaican consumption is to grow Jamaican produce. So we need to see more members of the diaspora investing in this sector, in particular, as we continue to build new agro-parks and see other emerging opportunities. The diaspora in the US and UK are well placed to invest in agriculture,” Green said.
-JIS