Coffee production in Indonesia
[4] The plants grew, and in 1711 the first exports were sent from Java to Europe by the Dutch East India Company—formally Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie and abbreviated VOC—reaching 2,000 pounds shipped in 1717.
[5] Coffee arriving in Amsterdam sold for high prices, 1 kg (2 lb) costing nearly one per cent of the average annual income.
There has been a port at the mouth of Ciliwung River since 397 AD, when King Purnawarman established the city he called Sunda Kelapa.
Menara Syahbandar (or Lookout Tower) was built in 1839 to replace the flag pole that stood at the head of wharves, where the VOC ships docked to load their cargos.
By the end of the 18th century, the price had dropped to 0.6 Guilders per kilogram and coffee drinking spread from the elite to the general population.
[9] The East Indies were the most important coffee supplier in the world during this period and it was only in the 1840s that their stranglehold on supply was eclipsed by Brazil.
This corrupt system, which diverted labor from rice production and caused great hardship for farmers, was immortalized through an influential novel by Eduard Douwes Dekker (pen name: Multatuli) in 1860 titled Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company.
[9] By the mid-1870s the Dutch East Indies expanded arabica coffee-growing areas in Sumatra, Bali, Sulawesi and Timor.
In the late 1800s, Dutch colonialists established large coffee plantations on the Ijen Plateau in eastern Java.
However, disaster struck in the 1876, when the coffee rust disease, Hemileia vastatrix, swept through Indonesia, wiping out most of the Arabica Typica cultivar.
Robusta coffee was introduced to smallholders around Kerinci around 1915, and then spread quickly across southern Sumatra during the 1920s, where production soon eclipsed Java.
and are now managed as state-owned plantations under PTPN, Perusahaan Terbatas Perkebunan Nusantara, and revitalized with new varieties of Coffea arabica in the 1950s.
They fall into six main categories: Coffee from this westernmost island in Indonesia is intriguing and complex, due to the large number of small-holder producers and the unique "giling basah" (wet hulling) processing technique they use.
At the green bean stage, coffee from this area has a distinctive bluish colour, which is attributed to processing method and lack of iron in the soil.
[18] The people of Tana Toraja build distinctively shaped houses and maintain ancient and complex rituals related to death and the afterlife.
The Dutch responded by replacing the Arabica firstly with Liberica (a tough, but somewhat unpalatable[citation needed] coffee) and later with Robusta.
As of 2015[update] Java's old colonial-era plantations provide just a fraction of the coffee grown on the island; they produce primarily the higher-valued Arabica variety.
The five largest estates are Blawan (also spelled Belawan or Blauan), Jampit (or Djampit), Pancoer (or Pancur), Kayumas and Tugosari, and they cover more than 4,000 hectares.
Certain estates age a portion of their coffee for up to five years, normally in large burlap sacks, which are regularly aired, dusted, and flipped.
Aged coffees can display flavours ranging from cedar to spices such as cinnamon or clove, and often develop a thick, almost syrupy body.
Many coffee farmers on Bali are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana".
[citation needed] Stakeholders in Bali, including the Subak Abian, have created Indonesia's first Geographic Indication (G.I.).
Unlike other parts of Indonesia, such as Sumatra, Bali coffee has a single harvest season each year—typically around July to September.
[25] Coffee production in Bali lacks significant backing from the government at either the provincial or national level and is therefore in need of support and professionalization.
Larger processing mills, estates and some farmers' cooperatives on Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Bali produce "fully washed" coffee.
The animals eat ripe coffee cherries and their digestive process removes the outer layers of the fruit.
believe that the unique flavour of kopi luwak comes, at least in part, from the extraction of naturally occurring potassium salts from the beans during the digestive process.
This distinctive geography poses challenges for logistics, for supporting improved technologies, and for developing cohesive industry organizations.
Common to most of the coffee-producing regions are circumstances of low yields, weak farmer organization, and limited government support—as coffee has hitherto not been regarded as a crop of strategic importance.
The protected park is home to endangered tigers, elephants and rhinos, and WWF predicts that these species will be extinct in a decade should the clearing and farming continue.
