RI falls short in meeting world’s coffee fix

According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Indonesian coffee industry faces huge challenges in meeting the world’s potential export market due to the limited knowledge of farmers in applying effective cultivation patterns.

Rahmad Syakib, the operations manager of the IFC, said the government neglected the need to train the farmers.

“This affects coffee production, which is currently very limited and unable to meet global demand,” Rahmad said at an IFC meeting in Medan on Tuesday.

Indonesia supplies 68,500 tons, or 2 percent of 3.5 million tons of Arabica coffee to the international market, while demand for the product, according to Rahmad, is on
the rise.

“This is a good opportunity. We want Indonesian coffee farmers to apply good farming techniques. For that, we and coffee export specialists from PT Indo Cafco will provide a training program on effective farming methods to help Indonesian coffee farmers improve production and quality,” he said.

Some 50 farmers and regional officials from North Sumatra and Aceh attended the launch of the training program held at the Swiss-Belhotel. The one-day event, was organized by IFC and PT Indo Cafco.

PT Indo Cafco and the IFC, a subsidiary of the World Bank, provided training kits, VCDs and DVDs for participants of the event.

The kits include instructions on effective coffee farming practices, including in the choice of seeds, soil management, processing, drying techniques and pest control.

Manaek Lumbangaol, a coffee farmer from Humbang Hasundutan regency, hailed the training program as a success, hoping the event would give him fresh knowledge on the field the government failed to heed.

“We could only produce an average of only 160 tons of Arabica coffee a year. We could actually raise production if the local administration provides help,” Manaek said.

PT Indo Cafca and the IFC has also established a Coffee Farmers Training Center in Tiga Raja, Simalungan regency, North Sumatra, in an effort to expand the program.

Coffee production in Indonesia, covers a total area of about 1.3 million hectares and is currently dominated by small-scale farmers owning an average of between 0.5 and 1.5 hectares of coffee farms. The country’s coffee production involves around 2 million farmers.

Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest coffee producer after Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam.

Indonesian coffee is chiefly exported to the US, Germany and Japan.