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Coffee Exporter and Government to Create Short-Term Roadmap to Increase Coffee Productivity
Written by Ani Hasanah
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VOI NEWS - Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters (GAEKI), Hutama Sugandhi assessed Indonesian coffee products have the best quality in the world. Nevertheless, Indonesia has challenges related to low coffee productivity. To RRI World Service Voice of Indonesia, on Tuesday, April 24th, he explained, Indonesian coffee production has not increased for 10 years, while there is an increase of 6-7% consumption in the country. He said If there is no increase in production, Indonesia will face difficultyin export. According to Sugandhi, productivity is still low due to the lack of rejuvenation of coffee plants that have been hundreds of years old. He said Indonesian productivity per hectare is only 700 kilograms, whereas Vietnam has produced 3 tons per hectare. He hopes, the government can support farmers to increase productivity through providing cheap credit and land.
“From last year, the government has begun to realize. Yesterday, we were invited by Indonesian Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs to make a roadmap to increase our coffee production through short-term productivity. Because the land is wide enough for its low productivity, how to improve its short term,” HutamaSugandhi said.
He further explained, for the short term, productivity can be increased through the rejuvenation of old seeds. If Indonesia can doubleproduction per hectare, it can beat Vietnam'sproduction. And for the long term, he suggested to expand coffee plantation. In 2017, the total amount of Indonesian coffee beans exports worth 1.5 billion US dollars and ready to use coffee worth 500 million US Dollars. HutamaSugandhi further said the most popular type of coffee is robusta, but export to USA is dominated by arabica coffee. In the last 3 years, refined coffee has increased dramatically from 150 million US Dollars to 400 US Dollars. He believes market expansion to Singapore, the Middle East and other countries will boost export of processed coffee. (VOI/Sekar/trans by Rezha/DP)
