Tea Warrior of Pasir Canar

Ferri Kurnia racked his brains and decided to buy farmers’ tea anyway, even though they had not fulfilled his criteria. He left the tea outside his factory compound.

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Ferri Kurnia places tea leaves into a chopping machine on 27 June 2019 at his factory in Pasir Canar, Jayagiri, Sukanagara, Cianjur regency, West Java.

Concern sometimes arises from memories. At least this was the case with Ferri Kurnia, 40, who returned home after traveling the world to collaborate with fellow villagers to raise the renown of the tea grown in his village. Today, they have improved their lives using their knowledge about tea cultivation.

The trail bike roared as Ferri gunned the throttle at the end of June 2019, climbing the steep path to the tea plantation belonging to Nanang Suharman in Pasir Canar, Cianjur regency. Yan Yan, 46, and his peers were picking fresh leaves at the plantation for processing into a specialty tea made of the topmost leaf (bud) and the two leaves beneath.

Ferri approached Yan Yan and explained the correct way to pluck the leaves. They must be plucked with bare hands, and without using knives or scissors like most other plantations did. Contact with metal will affect the taste of the tea. In addition, only the pekoe – two leaves plus the bud – were to be plucked.

“These parts will grow new shoots, so they should be plucked carefully,” Ferri said in Sundanese.

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Ferri Kurnia

The owner of the Pasir Canar tea factory has been dedicating his time for the last five years to sharing his knowledge about tea with farmers near the factory. He wants the farmers and tea pickers to become prosperous. He buys the freshly plucked shoots from the farmers for Rp 6,000 per kilogram, as long as they only consist of the pekoe. The price is attractive to the farmers, because collectors offer only Rp 2,500 per kilogram.

However, it hasn’t been easy to change the habits of farmers, who pick shoots with old leaves or the bud with seven or even nine leaves.

The father of seven has repeatedly stressed to the farmers that he would only buy the pekoe that was plucked by hand, and not cut with knives or scissors. However, it hasn’t been easy to change the habits of farmers, who pick shoots with old leaves or the bud with seven or even nine leaves. Ferri refused to buy these tea leaves, but the farmers weren’t deterred and continued to make the same mistake.

Ferri racked his brains and decided to buy farmers’ tea anyway, even though they had not fulfilled his criteria. He left the tea outside his factory compound. The next morning, the farmers were embarrassed to see that the tea they had harvested had been discarded. The method seemed to work in moving the farmers’ pride, and they finally learned to pick on the youngest, best shoots.

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Ferri Kurnia

It is these leaves that Ferri processes into specialty tea that can cost as much as Rp 350,000 per kilogram.

Ferri was born and raised at a tea plantation. His grandfather was a businessman who bought his tea plantations from the Japanese when the Dutch forces were about to enter Cianjur. He left the business to Ferri’s father. Ferri drank tea every day, whether at home or when he went to play at the homes of neighbors and friends, where tea was always served.

As he came of age, he went to school in Bandung and later to university in Jakarta. He then worked in a restaurant at a Jakarta hotel before eventually joining the crew of a cruise ship and touring the world. When he was in Alaska, he received news about his ailing mother and rushed home, but while he was transiting in Hong Kong, he received a message from his family that his mother had passed.

The news hit him hard with a sense of great loss. He then decided that he was done with sailing around the world and would stay with his father, Mohammad Oero. He didn’t want to lose his father, too. Ferri was confused once he got home, having been away from the plantations for so long. Gradually, he recovered the rebellious, fighting spirit of his youth and his love for nature that developed while he was a student in Bandung and Jakarta.

Ferri started visiting around the village and was shocked to discover that the villagers no longer drank tea.

Ferri started visiting around the village and was shocked to discover that the villagers no longer drank tea. They consumed mineral water instead, as tea was rarely cultivated. He felt as though he had lost part of his identity as a tea drinker. The farmers said that tea was no longer drunk because many of the tea plants were damaged.

In 2014, Ferri’s father set up a small tea factory with an output capacity of around 200 kilograms of tea per day. The factory received the tea that the local people harvested.

The factory halted its operation from 2016 to 2017, following the death of Ferri’s father. Ferri was left to manage the tea factory on his own. He taught farmers the correct way to cultivate and pluck tea. Fifty farmers work the plantation today, and their income has tripled.

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Ferri Kurnia

In November 2017, Ferri was riding his motorbike from downtown Cianjur to Pasir Canar in Takokak district, South Cianjur regency. Along the road, he debated over choosing between his father’s advice and giving in to the reality that he had exhausted his capital. He chose the latter.

Ferri was headed to the house of a farmer who had called him earlier and asked Ferri to visit his tea plantation and teach him how to harvest the tea correctly to produce quality dried tea. He would use the occasion and tell the farmer of his intention to close the tea factory.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He stopped, raising the hood of his raincoat and focusing on the screen. On the display was the name Vladimir Mosyagin, a tea exporter he had met at a trade expo. Ferri had once offered his tea to Mosyagin but had been turned down, as his production capacity was too small.

“He said he was prepared to buy my tea and wanted to come see my tea factory in Pasir Canar. Well, I was very happy. I smiled all the way to the farmer’s house. I regained my enthusiasm,” recalled Ferri.

Since the call from Mosyagin, Ferri has delivered at least six shipments of premium tea, with each shipment ranging from 7 quintals (700 kg) to 1.8 tons. The payments have always been made on time, so Ferri has also been able buy tea from farmers on a regular basis.

Ferri Kurnia

Born: Sukabumi, 20 Feb. 1979

Wife: Hapti Triyulan

Children: seven

Education: 3-year Diploma, Indonesian Tourism Academy, Jakarta, 2001-2002