Root cause: Mimi Alawiyah from Anomali Coffee explains the problems surrounding the coffee industry in Indonesia.

There has been a coffee culture in Indonesia ever since its introduction to the archipelago in the 17th century. It has become a tradition and a part of the everyday life of the people, therefore paving the way for the burgeoning international coffee chain, independent coffee shops and roasters in urban cities since the turn of this century.

The consumption of beans is correspondingly on the rise too, as is the ongoing trend of people concocting their own coffee by doing the roasting, grinding and brewing at home.

But coffee consumption is not the only aspect of the culture. Indonesia is currently the world’s fourth-largest producer after Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia with plantations across the archipelago, with each region having its own flavor character.

The rising urban coffee lifestyle, however, has yet to significantly improve the livelihood of coffee growers.

In a recent panel discussion held at @america in Pacific Place, Central Jakarta, representatives of four institutions concerned with sustainable coffee in Indonesia raised public awareness about the global issue as well as the measures all coffee stakeholders, including consumers, should take to improve the coffee industry.

Kehulu Coffee founder Heru Prama Yuda pointed out that consumers needed to start asking important questions to the roasters or barista they frequented on whether or not they had reliable partnerships with the growers.

“If they can provide information down to the location of the coffee farms, it usually means they have good relationships with the growers and they promote sustainable coffee,” he said on the sidelines of the discussion titled “How Sustainable is Your Coffee?” on Sept. 12.

The word “sustainability” has been thrown around a lot due to climate change. Although the understanding of what it is has changed somewhat over the years, reduced biodiversity and the coffee growers living in poverty are still the main considerations when people talk about sustainability in coffee.

This year’s celebration of International Coffee Day on Oct. 1 was focused on helping coffee farmers around the world receive a fair living income. At present, despite growing demand – an estimated 3 billion cups are consumed every day globally — the price is decreasing, and is at its lowest in 15 years, with the producers receiving over 30 percent below the average of the past decade.

The organizer’s website cited independent research showing that from a US$3 cup of coffee, the vast majority of small growers received as little as the equivalent of 1 cent.

Mimi Alawiyah, head of purchasing of “green” beans at Anomali Coffee, said the problems in Indonesia were mostly found in the relationships between growers and buyers (roasters). While the latter sought a lower price for high-quality beans, the growers looked for a higher price and lower production costs.

When the equations didn’t add up, she said, they resulted in growers abandoning the plantations or suffering from high production cost and later impacted the supply chain where there was no certainty on the prices and the quality of the coffee beans.

“These are the problems we commonly find in the field, which have motivated us to educate the growers to focus only on top-seed beans and to establish a partnership between growers and buyers to achieve agreement on production cost or prices,” said Mimi.

“The synergy among all parties in the supply chain, from the growers to the consumers, could ensure high-quality products. So it is important to have the knowledge and to be involved in the good practice by joining an organization working on sustainability in coffee.”

Sustainable Coffee Platform of Indonesia (SCOPI) was among such organizations that applied an innovative model of partnerships between the government and private businesses to increase the productivity of coffee growers without compromising the environment.

Indradi Soemardjan from SCOPI said 32 coffee-producing regencies had applied to the national sustainability curriculum in the past five years and the number would continue to rise.

“What we need is the commitment from multiple stakeholders to establish partnerships on sustainable coffee in Indonesia,” he said.

Enveritas project manager Amri Ilmma said the company since 2016 had conducted research and analyzed problems that were preventing proven solutions from being applied to end poverty for smallholder coffee growers.

“First-hand data would give the industry clearer insights to identify and prioritize problems to solve,” he said.

Unlike consumers in European countries and the US who pushed roasters or coffee shops to obtain a Freetrade certificate or sustainable coffee label, he said, awareness about sustainable coffee was low among Indonesian consumers and therefore the businesses should take the lead.

“The positive reactions we received from those attending the discussion, some are roasters and coffee shop owners, is actually the purpose of this event. We’d like to communicate with the businesses to not only focus on selling fine coffee but also take part in its sustainability.” (ste)

— Photos by JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

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