Indonesian National Coffee Production Drops, Imports Feared to Surge

COFFEE - JAKARTA. The productivity of Indonesia's coffee industry is projected to remain low. The nation's coffee bean production is estimated to reach around 10.5 million sacks, consisting of 1.8 million sacks of arabica coffee beans and 8.8 million sacks of robusta coffee beans in 2024. 

This was conveyed by Moelyono Soesilo, the Chairman of the Specialty Coffee & Industry Department of the Indonesian Coffee Exporters Association (AEKI). However, this figure is still below the potential national coffee production of 12 million - 12.5 million sacks.

Meanwhile, coffee production has shown a decline, with the January-April 2024 period only accounting for 70% of the production in the same period of the previous year. 

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Consequently, Soesilo does not deny the possibility of an increase in coffee imports to meet national coffee needs. 

"Currently, the domestic coffee bean processing industry needs to reach 6.5 million to 6.8 million sacks, with the remainder for the export market," he explained to Kontan on Tuesday (5/7). 

He admitted that the challenge faced in coffee bean production is the low productivity of the land, which currently only yields 1 ton to 1.1 tons per hectare (ha) for robusta coffee beans and 600 kg to 700 kg/ha for arabica coffee beans. 

According to him, the controversy over land productivity is due to the low level of education and economic resilience of the farmers. 

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When asked about the coffee production target, Soesilo could not yet confirm this.

"For this year, we are still unclear because the coffee bean harvest has been delayed due to the effects of El Nino last year. About 2 months from the usual conditions, the harvest usually starts in March or April but has been pushed back to May or June," Soesilo revealed.

It should be noted that the robusta coffee bean producing centers are located in Bengkulu, South Sumatra, and Lampung, also known as the Indonesian coffee triangle. Then there are areas in Java, especially Central and East Java, Bali, and Flores.

Then North Sumatra, Aceh, Toraja, Bali, and the developing region of West Java for arabica coffee production.