Camgar Farm turns Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee into gourmet value-added goods

Garfield Clark is staking Camgar Farm’s future on more than a morning cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. The entrepreneur is turning the celebrated bean into a line of value-added agro-processed goods, aiming to put Jamaica on the map for innovation as much as for the brew itself.

The Camgar name, he explains, draws on Clark, his initial Anthony, his daughter Millicent, and Garfield. Among the products he has developed are a sweet-and-spicy gourmet coffee jelly, coffee gummy syrup, coffee jackass corn, coffee breadfruit punch and coffee rum cream — items he says answer a global appetite for inventive foods.

The idea took root in 2018, though Clark did not act on it until late 2019. He approached JACRA with the view that a brand could be built without owning a farm — a plan that soon met hard going when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020.

Getting the recipes right proved equally demanding. His first effort, a sweet-and-spicy coffee cherry product, was tested repeatedly in his kitchen. Results were uneven until friends and family tasted versions they declared excellent.

June 2023 marked the first public release. Interest followed in the form of customer calls and media appearances. In 2024 he was nominated for the Observer Food Awards and featured in the Jamaica Observer about three times that year.

Clark says he is proud to work in agro-processing and wants Jamaica recognised not only for Blue Mountain coffee but also for finished products under brands such as Camgar. He credits support from the Scientific Research Council (SRC), the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), JAMPRO, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce (MIIC), noting that registering the business and seeking help from public institutions improved his visibility.

His longer ambition is to take innovative Jamaican agro-processed goods worldwide — on a path he compares to reggae, Bob Marley, athletics and Usain Bolt. Further distinctive products not yet on the market are in development, he says.

His counsel to new entrepreneurs is straightforward: act on advice from government agencies, register properly, and work with the relevant public institutions rather than operate out of sight.