Wilfred Jones: Black Farmer Brand coming to America

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones Portrait by Harry Borden

Wilfred Emanuel-Jones is Britains’ first black farmer. He plans to come to the United States so as to further expand his already very successful brand – the “Black Farmer brand” – which happens to be the second-largest specialist sausage maker in Britain.

Jones is looking to expand his brand – his brand worth US$ 280 million has grown and the expansion has only as far as Ireland.

But before he can tackle the US market, he feels he must invest in the Jamaican market. He hopes to have the business up and running by late next year, producing food for the local market. Exports to the U.S. market could start within three years.

“In five to ten years I would expect that we’d be employing hundreds of people in Jamaica who would be proud to be part of the Black Farmer team,” says Jones.

Jones left, Jamaica, at the age of four to live with his parents and eight-siblings in a two-bedroom house in Birmingham where his father, a pastor, had a job in a factory.

He now raises hogs, hens, cattle and sheep on his Devonshire farm. Or rather, he hires people to raise them, under the management of his wife. His company now sells produce of up to US$16 million a year at retail prices.