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Australia’s coffee diplomacy
Pick me: Different coffee beans and brands are on display during the coffee clinic in Jakarta
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Pick me: Different coffee beans and brands are on display during the coffee clinic in Jakarta.
“But first, coffee” was the tagline of a coffee drinking program held by the Embassy of Australia in cooperation with Anomali Coffee Jakarta.
Australia is one of the world’s major coffee consumers with an average annual consumption rate of 1.3 kilograms of coffee beans per capita.
Unsurprisingly, a fairly large number of cafes offer coffee on different corners of cities in Australia.
Australia’s coffee culture has spread to various countries, including its flat white and piccolo drinks.
Most Australians are fond of drinking coffee and Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Paul Grigson is no exception.
Grigson showed his love of coffee by inviting several indie cafes, mainly those serving different Indonesian coffee varieties in their menus, to the recent program at his Jakarta residence.
He said as the world’s fourth coffee producer and exporter, Indonesia should have industries to support the diverse types of local coffee.
He ranks coffee as an aspect of diplomacy with Indonesia by supporting and empowering Indonesian coffee.
Irvan Helmi, a co-founder of Anomali Coffee, described Indonesia as a major coffee producer with the largest number of single originals in the world.
Indonesia’s vast territory allows coffee from different regions to have distinctly different features.
Sumatra and Nusa Tenggara coffee, for instance, have different typical characteristics.
“Sumatra’s highland coffee tends to be strong with a fairly high acid grade and East Nusa Tenggara coffee is lighter with low acidity,” Irvan said.
Special brew: Australian Ambassador Paul Grigson (center) brews coffee during a recent coffee clinic in Jakarta.
The same is true of coffee varieties produced in Sulawesi, Papua and West Java. All have respectively unique qualities that enrich the flavors of Indonesian coffee and are not similar to what is found in other coffee producing countries.
The advantage of this diversity, however, doesn’t seem to have been accompanied by proper crop management and distribution arrangements.
A lot of coffee growers in various regions are burdened with debts to middlemen so that they’ve so far been less serious about crop maintenance.
Irvan has also found it difficult to secure a supply of Indonesian coffee for his cafe.
“In several locations, their distribution channels have been controlled by middlemen or their coffee has been bought on a large scale by distributors, making it hard for me to buy in moderate amounts,” said Irvan.
Australia, also known to support organic coffee planting, pays attention to some coffee producing countries, including Indonesia.
Bilateral cooperation in this area is realized through the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Income through Support for Markets (PRISMA).
The scheme aims to promote farmers’ incomes, particularly in eastern Indonesia. Among those assisted by PRISMA are coffee farmers in East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. Collaborating with local cooperatives, PRISMA guides these farmers in crop maintenance to produce good coffee beans.
The organic planting management guidance is expected to increase the competitiveness of their products in the market and PRISMA’s distribution guidance would enable farmers to channel their harvests properly. As a result, farmers would be able to handle their crop maintenance with greater enthusiasm as their hard work would be appreciated. Their economy would therefore gradually improve.
Irvan said he could also feel the benefit of the presence of farmers’ cooperatives, which allow him to buy medium amounts of good quality coffee at reasonable prices.
As he has frequently introduced Indonesian coffee beans at international exhibitions, Irvan said what PRISMA had done constituted a measure of progress. With better quality and distribution, Indonesian coffee will get into the frontline of world coffee producers.
“When any foreign party wishes to buy coffee from a region in Indonesia, its distribution and quality have been well maintained,” he said.
— Courtesy of Australian Embassy
