Abstract

Geographical indications (GIs) are a means by which developing countries with specialty or traditional food products rooted in their respective locales can capitalize on their uniqueness. GIs are “ ... indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of the good is essentially attributable to its geographic origin” (US Patent and Trademark Office). A key advantage of GIs is that that these products can command higher prices and ideally be more rewarding for farmers and producers, while encouraging more environmentally suitable farming methods. Many countries, including Jamaica, have introduced regimes to provide legal protection and governance structures for these GIs. However, very little information is known about the conditions under which these marketing schemes can succeed. This paper addressed this research gap by investigating the extent to which these GIs can provide a fair return to farmers, and help sustain traditional and sustainable farming methods. The results of a series of interviews conducted with Jamaican farmers, especially small farmers, as well as various industry stakeholders involved in the growing production, governance and marketing of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, suggest that returns to small farmers are related to the power distribution in the value chain. Further, the governance structure dictates the power relationship in the value chain. Hence in designing GI systems, careful attention needs to be paid to the GI governance structure to ensure fair returns at all levels of the value chain. Importantly, without fair returns to the farmers and good governance over the farming methods, this approach will not provide the economic and environmental sustainability sought.