From Preanger to the World

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

A class is held on Sunday (28/1/2018) at the 5758 Coffee Lab barista school in Bandung, West Java. Besides being skilled in brewing coffee, a good barista must know and respect the flavor of each coffee variety.

To produce the best coffee, the people of Sunda do not only rely on fertile soil. The behind-the-scenes role of the coffee “masters” has become one of the key supports of the coffee revival. Thanks to them, Preanger, once an important part of the history of Nusantara coffee, has reemerged and taken off.

Ayi Sutedja used his hoe to dig up the loose soil. The shape of the hole was circular, with a coffee plant placed in the middle. Around it, Ayi sprinkled organic fertilizer made of pine needles. He did the same with dozens of other trees.

"This plantation is home for me. After going as far away as possible, I kept coming back to the coffee plants here," he said at the end of January.

For the last two years, Ayi could not be found at his plantation near Mount Puntang in Banjaran, Bandung regency, West Java. Since his coffee became the most expensive variety in the Indonesian coffee auction at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Expo 2016, his name has become widely known. He could simply have sat back and drawn rupiah on the fame of his coffee.

However, he refuses to be idle. Aside from tending to his plantation, Ayi also helps farmers from several areas in West Java, Toraja and Papua in cultivating and producing the best coffee.

Not content to remain at his coffee plantation, Ayi runs the Ngopi Saraosna event, which has been held once every 3-4 months since March 2017. The most recent edition was held mid-May, when hundreds of farmers came.

"The event is a forum for discussion and to increase the farmers’ knowledge. This provides an occasion for the farmers to maintain their spirit in planting and selling coffee," he said.

Amir Sutisna, 60, is one farmer who was inspired. The coffee farmer from Palintang in Manglayang district, Bandung regency, has learned a lot from Ayi, from organizing his plantation to post-harvest techniques. "After 17 years as a coffee farmer, I’ve just started to experiences the sweetness of coffee this year. The key turned out to be in the post-harvest process," said Amir.

Amir followed Ayi’s suggestion to build a greenhouse. It is 30 meters x 7 meters. With the new facility, he learned a variety of techniques for processing coffee, ranging from the natural to semi-wash and to honey processing.

He was satisfied with the results. His harvest of up to 25 tons from over 10 hectares is now profitable. If Amir previously sold green coffee beans for only Rp 2,500 per kilogram, Amir can now sell it for up to Rp 80,000/kg.

Unusually, Amir does not want to keep all his knowledge to himself. Now, it is his turn to share it with other farmers. He has already helped dozens of farmers from planting to harvesting. "Picking and sorting red coffee berries is the most basic knowledge we provide to the farmers," he said.

Slamet Prayoga, a coffee farmer from Pangalengan, Bandung regency, also teaches and shares his knowledge. At his own expense, Yoga – as he is known – has urged the spirit of the farmers in Pangalengan for the past 13 years. It has not been easy. Due to his lack of experience, Yoga’s coffee was once labeled as having the flavor of chicken droppings.

He did not give up, and continues to learn, even to this day. One of the things that he continues to emphasize is tending to the trees in the plantation.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Two customers sit at a table on Wednesday (7/2/2018) in the Dr Coffee cafe in Bandar Lampung, which is open until midnight. Robusta coffee is the primary item on the coffee shop’s menu. The growth of coffee shops in Bandar Lampung is a positive indicator of the increasing value of Robusta coffee.

Not in books

Yoga estimated that in a single day, farmers needed to plant and tend to 10 trees, so that in a month, 300 trees will need attention. Within a year, each farmer can tend take to about 4,000 trees, from clearing the land to fertilizing and to pruning.

"With such a large area, farmers have the potential to prosper. If there is a farmer who is still poor, there must be something wrong and that has to be corrected," he said.

Yoga was not talking nonsense. He picked up a calculator and calculated a farmer\'s potential income. If the farmer had 4,000 trees, he could produce 5 kilograms per tree after five years, or 20,000 kg of coffee per harvest. At Rp 8,000/kg for red coffee berries, a farmer could make Rp 160 million per year, or about Rp 13 million per month. "The farmer’s life is not in a book. Everything must come from direct experience on the plantation," said Yoga.

This was not empty talk, as Yoga has proven with his own plantation of 2 hectares. Today, his name is well known on the international specialty coffee scene. At the SCAA 2016, Yoga’s coffee garnered the third highest bid at auction.

"There are those who ask for 4 tons [of beans] per month, but I only provide 150-300 kg. Others ask for 900 kg, I give only 60 kg," he said.

Instead of making large profits, he encourages farmers to become independent exporters. With wide access to information, they can find out the prices on the world coffee market. Currently, at least 300 farmers have a total plantation area of about 700 hectares.

Agus Rusman, a coffee trader and former farmer in Bandung regency, is still learning from Yoga. He planned to sell specialty coffee of good quality, higher than the usual quality. The foreign market is one of his targets.

Agus said the coffee techniques he gained from Yoga had continued to change his life since 2002. The former vegetable farmer now supplies coffee beans for a giant coffee company in Indonesia.

"Now, I have earned the trust of many consumers. In 2016, I partnered with seven companies. I stocked coffee beans from hundreds of farmers and 23 small collectors. The potential was 300-700 tons per harvest," he said.

Nathanael Charis, the founder of Morning Glory (MG) cafe and coffee processor in Bandung, is also pursuing a similar aim. He was the brains behind the West Java coffee export in 2009, at a volume of 18 tons at Rp 30,000/kg, or two times higher than the normal price. Coffee exports had been abandoned following the coffee leaf rust outbreak the late 1800s, with the last export made in 1924 and none thereafter for about 85 years.

As time went by, exports became the driver. Farmers are more confident in planting the coffee trees of the best international standards. Data from the West Java Plantation Agency shows that in 2009-2015, coffee bean exports reached 187 tons and a value of US$1.3 million.

However, Nathanael refused to become the sole actor behind the success. According to him, the success was the fruit of his collaboration with farmers in Pangalengan, Bandung regency. It was not easy, because he was rejected initially. But then, Nael, as he is locally known, was deemed to be knowledgeable.

"Gradually, I taught the farmers how to plant the trees and on up to how to harvest the red berries. They sorted the rotten fruits, stems and gravel from the harvests. Before, half a sack of coffee beans was gravel. Today, it is full of red berries," said Nael.

Nael did not just open the door, but also provided a selling point through MG. At the Bandung facility, the first branch he established, all the coffee beans were from West Java, mostly harvested from the farmers’ plantations in the mountains of Tasikmalaya, Sumedang and Garut.

"Now there are 13 MG stores in several regions in Indonesia. Finally, we opened one in Australia. The coffee sold is still West Java coffee. From the beginning, I was sure West Java coffee had great potential for development. We hope that more and more farmers and coffee shops will be proud of the coffee grown on this land," he said.

However, Nael said, there were still unprincipled exporters that bought the farmers’ harvests at low prices, which showed that the domestic coffee trade was not yet ideal. As a result, the farmers did not profit significantly.

"Actually, it is the farmers who have worked many years, from planting to harvesting coffee. It\'s not fair that they get the smallest slice of the coffee business," he said.

To achieve fairness, Nael built a warehouse with the capacity to store 1,000 tons of coffee on a 5,000-square-meter plot. The warehouse is expected to become the center of the West Java coffee trade.

"In order to be transparent, buyers and farmers must meet face to face. Buyers can see and select the coffee according to quality, and the farmers will directly hear the prices that are offered," he said.

However, according to Nael, the system needed the banks’ support, because the farmers’ coffee stored at the warehouse were not necessarily purchased immediately. Thus, the banks were urgently needed to help pay the farmers.

"Buyers need time to look around and choose the right coffee, especially if they come from abroad. Meanwhile, the farmers want immediate payment to meet their daily needs," he said.

It was important for the farmers to understand the coffee business as a whole, so they did not give up when buyers offered low prices for their coffee harvests.

Nael realized that the farmers had felt more bitterness than enjoyment in the fascinating coffee business. He had taken a pioneering step toward a fair coffee trade in building a storage center for the farmers’ harvest.

(CHE/NIT/RTG/TAM)