Robusta, the Forgotten Savior

KOMPAS/RHAMA PURNA JATI

A coffee farmer of Talang Mekenang village in Pajar Bulan district, Lahat regency, South Sumatra, rakes coffee berries on Saturday (12/5/2018). Most of the region’s coffee farmers are indiscriminately harvesting coffee, leading to fears that the quality of South Sumatra coffee will be affected. In fact, South Sumatra has a great potential for coffee because it has the largest acreage of coffee plantations and the largest coffee production in the country.

The leaf disease that killed many Arabica coffee trees in the early 20th century opened the way for the Robusta variety to enter the archipelago. The origins of the Robusta’s history in Indonesia lay in the 150 coffee beans purchased in 1900 from Belgium. The Robusta beans made landfall at Surabaya’s Tanjung Perak Port. Its early days were vibrant, but decades later, the story of the Robusta faded. The “savior” variety even bore the stigma as a second-grade coffee after the Arabica.

Amidst the struggle to develop coffee, the fate of the Robusta is like a stepchild and is considered less special and second to the Arabica. In fact, in the map of the Nusantara (archipelago) coffee industry, Robusta is actually the backbone.

Richard, 28, a resident of Talang Mekenang in Pajar Bulan subdistrict, Lahat regency, South Sumatra, was drying coffee beans in his yard on Saturday (12/5/2018). Thousands of coffee berries of different colors were spread out over a blue tarpaulin. There were red coffee berries, but there were also many green and yellow berries, so it looked like an atypical rainbow.

South Sumatra is one of the centers of Robusta production. The berries are harvested at mixed stages of maturity, and even indiscriminately. Berries are picked when they are ripe red, but others are picked when they are still an immature green or unripe yellow. The coffee farmers argue that they badly need the money.

If they picked only the red fruits, according to Richard, every hectare would only produce about 20 kilograms a day. But if they picked the coffee fruits in entire bunches, they could harvest nearly 100 kilograms. "For us, the important thing is that the coffee beans can be sold immediately," he said.

Richard knew that harvesting fruits haphazardly would reduce the quality of the coffee. The prices would fall. But he did not care about the condition. The randomly harvested fruits are priced around Rp 22,000 per kilogram. If only the red fruits were harvested, the price would be Rp 30,000/kg.

Another Lahat farmer, Zuljalali, 40, provided other reasons: pest infestations and unpredictable weather. Even worse, rampant coffee thefts have forced farmers to harvest earlier, while the fruits are still immature.

"If we waited to harvest until [the fruits] were ripe, we often end up empty-handed, because the coffee fruits have been stolen. Moreover, the distance between our houses and the plantation is quite far. Rather than getting nothing, it is better to harvest them earlier despite their poor quality," added coffee farmer Hebriyansyah, 36, of Gisting village in Gisting district, Tanggamus regency, Lampung.

Harvesting is not the only problem. The drying process for Robusta coffee is generally haphazard. There are farmers who dry their beans on tarps, and others who place them directly on a concrete floor or bare ground to dry them under the sun. When the coffee beans are raked and turned, soil and small gravel become mixed with the drying beans.

Oftentimes, the farmers dry the coffee beans on the road. The aim is for the dried coffee beans to be peeled as they are crushed by passing vehicles. As a result, the coffee end up smelling like rubber or engine oil.

The indiscriminate harvesting and post-harvest processing are not unique to Lahat and Lampung, but also occur in East Java and most other Robusta coffee production areas.

Although several farmers have tried to raise the quality standard, the offered price was not worth the trouble. Widodo, the chairman of the Loh Jinawi Farmers Group in Lampung’s Way Harong Trubus village, said that the red coffee fruits were processed well, even though they did not fetch a good price.

"There used to be a buyer that offered a higher price, but the difference was only Rp 2,000 per kilogram. The price was not worth the extra cost we had to spend," said Widodo. These additional costs comprise the cost of labor to pick only the red beans, special drying facilities and the time it took to process standard coffee.

KOMPAS/ LUCKY PRANSISKA

Robusta coffee.

Robusta’ history

The book, 100 Years of the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Center 1911-2011 records that the Robusta crop originated from 150 beans purchased for 2 francs on June 30, 1900 from I\'Horticulture Coloniale Brussels in Belgium. Transported on Rotterdamsche Lloyd’s SS Gendeh from the Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands, the Robusta beans arrived at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya.

At that time, leaf rust had killed many Arabica coffee trees in the archipelago, opening the way for the Robusta’s entry. Planted for the first time at the Soember Agoeng plantation, located to the southeast of Malang, by Mr. Rauws, board secretary of the Cultuur Mij Soember Agoeng plantation company, the Robusta then spread to the Wringin Anom and Kalibakar plantations in Malang.

A year later, it was the turn of the Kedirische Landbouw Vereniging association of Kediri plantation owners to import Robusta seeds. This time, the seeds were distributed to 20 plantation companies among its membership.

The Dutch colonial government did not want to lose out. Around the same time, it planted 24 Robusta coffee seedlings from Brussels at its experimental garden on the slopes of Mount Kawi in Bangelan, Malang. Later, in a collaboration between the government and the private sector, the Robusta spread and took root across the archipelago.

Decades later, the descendants of these pioneer beans could not be traced. Robusta, the savior variety, was even stigmatized as a second-class variety after the Arabica. In reality, of the 639,305 tons of coffee produced in 2016, about 70 percent was exported, of which 90 percent was the Robusta variety. In addition, according to the data of the Agriculture Ministry’s plantations directorate general, 86 percent of the 1.2 million hectares of coffee plantations in Indonesia cultivate Robusta. About 2 million coffee farmers depend on the variety.

KOMPAS/IWAN SETIYAWAN

A farm worker picks Robusta coffee berries on Saturday (20/1/2018) at a plantation near Lake Kerinci in Kerinci regency, Jambi. The ripe coffee berries are sold to collectors for Rp 5,000-8,000 per kilogram.

Stagnation

Adi Haryanto of the Indonesian Coffee Council said Indonesia\'s annual coffee production reached 11 million sacks at 60 kg per sack. The domestic market absorbed about 40 percent of the production volume while 60 percent was exported. Robusta comprised 75 percent of the national production and Arabica 25 percent. Indonesia’s Robusta exports controlled 18.4 percent of the global Robusta market, and Indonesia was the world\'s third largest Robusta exporter.

The challenge was stagnant production. It was feared that the Robusta Nusantara production would no longer be able to meet the demands of the coffee market and Indonesia could become a net coffee importer.

PT Kapal Api Global commissioner Adi said that Kapal Api used to rely on Robusta coffee supplied from a production center outside Java, as its quality was generally good. However, the coffee supply was unstable and its production volume was insufficient to meet the company’s needs. Kapal Api was thus forced to import raw materials from regions in Java with more stable and regular supply.

National coffee productivity remains low at only 0.7 tons per hectare per year, far below the potential annual production of 3 tons per hectare. In fact, according to the Indonesian Coffee Policy: Facing the Challenges of Climate Change Competition and Changes of the World Condition, published by the Office of the Coordinating Economy Minister, Robusta production centers continued to shrink from 1.17 million hectares in 2010 to about 887,000 hectares in 2017. Some of the land had been converted to cultivate Arabica and other high-value commodities such as sugarcane, oil palm and rubber.

Economist and former deputy trade minister Bayu Krisnamurthi warned the government not to be misguided in managing the national coffee industry. The development of Robusta coffee could not be treated the same as Arabica. Unlike the Arabica, which targeted the specialty and boutique coffee market, Robusta was used more widely to meet industry needs. "The two cannot be treated equally. They must look at the map of the market," he said.

Coordinating Economy Minister advisor Lin Che Wei also viewed Robusta coffee as possessing great potential. Meeting the needs of the domestic coffee industry alone was not enough. Several companies had even been forced to import Robusta from Vietnam, which offered lower prices.

With the rising temperatures due to climate change, about 50 percent of the world’s land suitable for coffee plantations would be reduced by 2050, but would still be suitable for cultivating Robusta. Experts thus predict that Robusta coffee will be the future backbone of the coffee industry. This strength needs to be developed.

(CHE/VIO/RAM/COK/DIA/NIT/REN/GRE/ITA)