And more widely known international varietals Caturra, Catuai, Villa Sachi and Colombia, Típica varieties.

These are carefully separated into different lots in order to produce distinct single varietal coffees, including some interesting local Indonesian hybrids Rasuna, Long Berry, Andong Sari, Toraja, S795 (Jember), Jantung. They have 13 different local and international varietals. Since our last visit they have changed a few things, including more of a focus on varietals from other origins, more development and training and more attention paid to varietals that give a good cup and are productive. I also took the opportunity to visit East Java as I am determined to build new relationships with different smallholders from Kayumas and also from other islands in Indonesia such as Las Flores, Bali, Papua and Toraja. After a hard year in 2017, where the crop loss was 40% of total volume, it was time to see and get a view on new crop 2018/19 and understand how the groups confronted these different challenges. Even though coffee communities are facing difficulties with the recent disasters, we saw nothing but smiles and positivity from everyone met. The risk of another natural disaster considered, I decided to head off in December to Sumatra to visit our main partners in North Sumatera, Aceh Gayo and Java. This is due to the use of underproductive coffee varieties and some of the coffee trees being already too old.

500 – 800 kg/hectare/year which is around 60% of potential production. Coffee yield is still relatively low i.e. Today, in Indonesia around 96% of the coffee growing areas are smallholder farm cultivated in monoculture and not intensively managed. After Indonesia reached independence on the 17th August 1945, farmers gained more control in coffee cultivation as the government reduced its role in the coffee plantation. All the rest of Arabica and Robusta is distributed in Sulawesi (9.0%), Java (8.3%), Nusa Tenggara (5.8%), Kalimantan (2.0%), and Maluku and Papua (0.6%). Sumatra Island dominates production with 74.2% of Indonesian coffee grown here with the largest Robusta production in Bengkulu, Lampung and South Sumatra areas. Coffee is one of the best ways to earn a decent income in the agricultural sector and is grown in nearly all the islands across the Indonesian archipelago.

Java and sumatra