JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Indonesian coffee products have great potential to expand into international markets instead of merely being traded domestically. The government is encouraging local businesspeople to penetrate the export market to obtain much-needed added value.
Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) deputy head of marketing Joshua PM Simandjuntak said on the sidelines of a forum on improving coffee industry creativity and funding in Jakarta on Saturday (4/3/2017) that the agency had declared coffee to be an Indonesian culinary product that should be widely promoted in international markets. The concept is of Indonesian coffee diplomacy going global.
Choosing which coffee to buy has beeninfluenced by the huge volume and export value of Indonesian coffee over the years. Indonesian coffee once dominated the global market although sales have been declining in recent years.
Trade Ministry data shows that the export values of Indonesian tea, coffee and spices tend to fluctuate. The value reached US$1.676 billion in 2011, US$2.087 billion in 2012, US$1.948 billion in 2013, US$1.835 billion in 2014, US$2.196 billion in 2015 and US$1.896 billion in 2016.
“We will guide the local coffee business starting from the upstream. Currently we are mapping out the problems and needs of coffee culinary businesspeople, including the need for local cafés and coffee shops. All deputy heads are involved in this mapping-out, which includes infrastructure, access to funding, facilitation of obtaining intellectual rights and regulation,” Joshua said.
Thus far, there have been several brands of local coffee shops with branches in a number of major cities. The government needs to assist these brands so that they can penetrate international markets. Some of their obstacles include business license arrangement, coffee commodity exports and procurement of coffee-making equipment.
Bekraf deputy head of intellectual rights and regulation facilitation Ari JulianoGema said that the agency was cooperating with professional certification agencies (LSP) for baristas and coffee certification agencies. The cooperation was established last year.
In 2016, 400 baristas were certified in the Bekraf-facilitated program. In 2017, Bekraf has targeted to certify 1,000 more baristas. Certified baristas are hoped to be able to fulfill the need for professional human resources in the domestic and international coffee shop industry.
He explained that cooperation with coffee certification agencies wasfacilitated through coffee farmer communities. The target is to create a standardized coffee-processing technique.
More shops
Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) deputy chair DaroeHandojo said that the number of coffee shops or cafés is continuously increasing. In Jakarta, for instance, there are currently 1,600
coffee shops. New coffee shops are also cropping up outside of Jakarta, including in Solok, Tegal and Semarang.
On the other hand, Daroe acknowledged that many existing coffee shops were closed, mostly due to the lack of a strong business concept or marketing strategy.
Daroe said that there were around 14 Indonesian coffee shop brands ready to go international, with their high potential able to be seen from their concepts, marketing strategies and business sustainability prospects. For instance, My Kopi-O! has opened branches in Java, Bali, Makassar, Palembang and Lombok. Another example is Tanamera Coffee with its brances around Jakarta.
There are also coffee shop businesses on the scale of small and medium enterprises. However, Daroe said, many of these SME coffee shops do not have a sustainable business model.
Entering international markets, he continued, was not an easy matter. Access to funding is one of the biggest challenges. Local coffee shop or café owners must cooperate with foreign businesspeople in order to ease business license arrangements in destination countries.
Seen comprehensively from the coffee shop business chain, Daroe said that synergy between ministries and state agencies was necessary. On the upstream, assistance to coffee farmers and coffee commodity trade climate must be improved. On the downstream, the government must assist and empower the local industry.
Nusantara Coffee Shop Network founder SetyaYudhaIndraswara said that efforts to dominate local markets must not be neglected. Thus far, traveling coffee salespersons and local coffee shops have actively catered to the lower-middle class, even though many of them still mostly use instant coffee sachets.
(MED)