While the demand for specialty coffee in Indonesia is high, the industry is constrained by its inability to increase production. This study assesses the trade and marketing practices of Indonesian specialty coffee through interviews with different value chain actors— exporters, farmer associations and cooperatives, processors, traders and government representatives—in the provinces of South Sulawesi, North Sumatra, Aceh and Bali. The research identifies a number of key constraints to increasing productivity including lack of coffee traceability, limited on-farm drying and pulping facilities, lack of control of coffee berry borer, and an inefficient coffee representative body. The author makes four key recommendations, namely a proposed intervention on Flores to improve agronomic practices and develop organic coffee; restoring Arabica coffee to tsunami abandoned acreage (>20 per cent) and expanding farmers drying capacity and pulping ability; the use of Broca traps to immediately improve production and quality of Robusta and low altitude Arabica coffees affected by coffee borer; and development of direct market linkages. The report notes that activities addressing some of these recommendations are already underway.

All photographic images on this site were taken by the Collins Higgins Consulting teams during the EI-ADO project activities. Reproduction should note their source as Collins Higgins Consulting.