Eureka "Nusantara" Tea!

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

An aerial view of the Malabar tea plantation in Pengalengan, Bandung regency, West Java, shows the beautiful scenery of the plantation on June 22, 2019 (22/6/2019). The area has become a tourist destination where visitors come to see the sunrise.

Tea in the Indonesian nusantara (archipelago) is on a steep decline. But tea business promoters, especially smallholders, are trying to rise again. They are convinced that nusantara tea has the strength to return to its heyday.

Those were some of the findings made by Kompas during its Nusantara Tea Expedition along Java and Sumatra from mid-June to early August 2019. This expedition involved 26 people, comprising reporters, photographers. videographers, graphic artists and researchers from the Research and Development Division of Kompas.

In Java, we toured Bandung, Garut, Cianjur, Sukabumi, Brebes, Tegal, Batang, Pekalongan, Yogyakarta, Karanganyar, Semarang, Surabaya, Malang, Blitar, Lumajang and Banyuwangi. In Sumatra we visited Medan, Simalungun, Pematang Siantar, Solok, South Solok, Pagar Alam, Kabawetan (Kapahiang) and Bengkulu. The total distance we covered by car was no less than 6,384.6 kilometers.

West Java was the starting point due to its high significance in terms of expanse and history. There we can find PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) VIII, the state estate company taking over most of Indonesia’s former Dutch tea plantations. It manages 19,342 hectares of productive estates divided into 23 plantations.

PTPN VIII has 26 factories to process tea produced by the plantations. Their products include orthodox black tea and CTC tea, green tea and white tea. These products have been exported to several countries, mainly to Malaysia, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, Britain, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Germany and Pakistan. Sadly, the exports are still in bulk form. Indonesian tea is usually consumed after being mixed with tea from other countries so that it is unidentifiable.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

A silhouette shows a tea picker share a drink with a fellow laborer before they start working at the Malabar tea plantation in Pengalengan, Bandung regency, West Java, on June 22, 2019 (22/6/2019).

Based on observations, many of the tea factories owned by PTPN VIII have grown dull and their machines too old. They are left far behind by private owned plants.

The same problem is faced by those of the other PTPNs such as PTPN IV, PTPN VI and PTPN VII in Sumatra. Each of them has its own strategy to handle their operations. Some have discontinued their factories’ operations, like those in the Parakan Salak tea estate (Sukabumi) and Sidamanik (Simalungun, North Sumatra). Their reason is that while their factories are already old, the supply of fresh tea leaves from plantations is no longer sufficient.

The condition of their plantations is not far different. Many of their estates haven’t been properly maintained so that their production is not optimal, only around 2.5 tons per ha in one harvest. In fact, the ideal standard set by the Tea and Cinchona Research Center of Gambung is 4-5 tons per ha in one harvest.

Smallholder tea

Tea farmers with less than half a ha of land are trapped in a more complex problem involving fertilizer, tea distribution channels and unfavorable prices. The prices of fresh shoots, as newly reaped tea leaves are called, range only from Rp 2,300 (17 US cents) to Rp 2,500 per kilogram. The rates are not proportional to the costs of seedlings, maintenance and reaping.

“As calculated, the operational cost can reach Rp 2,700 per kilogram,” said Heri Juhari, 47, a smallholder tea farmer in Cijeruk village, Sukamekar, Sukaraja district, Sukabumi, West Java.

Farmers have difficulty determining prices because they have to sell tea to collecting traders, who supply it to smallholder factories. When the tea has been processed into leaves for brewing in bulk form, factory owners sell it to brokers before being further sold to big private factories. If the smallholder factories sell it directly to big factories, brokers threaten to stop their supply to big factories.

Kompas

A bungalow stands on the Malabar tea plantation in Pengalengan, Bandung regency, West Java, on June 22, 2019. The construction, which is used to monitor the plantation, has also become a tourist attraction where visitors can enjoy sunrise. (22/6/2019).

Big factories will also cease their purchase from smallholder factories to avoid a shortage of bulk tea supply from brokers because supply from smallholder factories is not stable. In other word, brokers are more powerful because they can guarantee their supply to big factories.

“Finally, our tea is bought by brokers at a low price,” complained Sobar, 43, a smallholder factory owner in Sukabumi.

The other problem is that nusantara tea has to compete with imported tea. Over the last five years, Indonesian tea imports have increased by 32.6 percent. The imports come from, among other countries, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Based on data from the Indonesian Tea Council (DTI) in

2019, Indonesian tea imports have reached 40,000 tons, 90 percent of which are composed of low quality tea.

“It’s the tea from Vietnam, Thailand and some other places entering here, for failing to be sold to America and Europe. Their tea sold to America isn’t free from pesticide,” said chairman of the Confederation of International Tea Smallholders (CITS), Rachman Badruddin.

This is worsened by Indonesia’s very low tea import duty, only 20 percent. Turkey applies an import duty rate of 145 percent, Vietnam up to 50 percent, India 114 percent and China 100 percent. If the import duty is raised, it can protect local tea prices and reduce imports.

Awakening

With the various tea issues from upstream to downstream levels, tea farmers and tea business advocates won’t readily give up.

As written in wide-ranging literature, such as the book A History of Tea by Laura C. Martin, nusantara tea has been famous for a long time. At least in 1935, the Europeans were already acquainted with Java tea. In 2004, Indonesia was the fifth-largest tea exporting country in the world after Sri Lanka, Kenya, India and China.

The history of nusantara tea’s world fame becomes one of the triggers that led Indonesian tea farmers and tea business promoters to awaken.

The history of nusantara tea’s world fame becomes one of the triggers that led Indonesian tea farmers and tea business promoters to awaken. At the farmers’ level, they have started arranging consolidation and building networks independently to lessen the pressure posed by middlemen or brokers.

For instance, such attempts are being made by farmers in Pasir Canar, Cianjur regency. They have started learning the correct way of reaping by using their hands rather than machines to obtain fresh shoots of good quality.

Ferri Kurnia, 41, a smallholder tea estate owner, trains them to maintain tea plants and is prepared to buy fresh shoots at a price almost tripling middlemen’s rate. This tea is then processed according to special standards to yield premium tea worth up to Rp 350,000 per kilogram for exports through his networks.

In Solok regency, West Sumatra, several youths have started planting organic tea. They also apply the manual method of reaping fresh shoots — somewhat similar to what is practiced by Ferri’s community.

Meanwhile, PTPN VII is engaged in processing cooperation with PT KBP Chakra to produce premium tea of export quality.

PTPN VIII is innovating at a downstream level through Teh Warga Bandung (TWB), artisan premium tea sold at cafes with the concept of mixology and tea blending.

“This is meant to campaign for tea drinking culture in Indonesia,” said Laeli Fadli Arif, chairman of the TWB Project Team.

Mixology and tea blending are the current trend among urbanites. At least cafes are emerging with this concept in Jakarta, Bandung, even as far as Pekalongan. Tea business promoter Iriana Ekasari, for instance, has set up Sila Tea House in Bogor and Bandung to promote Nusantara tea.

Tea brewing classes are also sought by many people, like the one organized by tea business advocate Ratna Soemantri. While intensively campaigning for nusantara tea in different forums, Ratna also opens a class that grants certificates to its graduates so they have legitimacy to start their cafes.

In this class, there are participants who originally opened coffee cafes. As they observe, coffee is beginning to reach the point of saturation and tea is seen as offering an economically big opportunity.

This awakening move should be further aroused in order to create a tea glorifying movement.

This awakening move should be further aroused in order to create a tea glorifying movement. When tea regains its vigor and becomes a lifestyle, welfare will be enjoyed not only by city dwellers but also by tea farmers in villages. Eureka nusantara tea!