REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SEMARANG -- The Central Java Indonesian Coffee Exporter Association (AEKI) has said the government must support the coffee-growing farmers as demand for the commodity is high within the country as well as overseas.
"Consumption of coffee, especially in Indonesia, is increasing every year by about 5-6 percent or around 15 thousand tons per annum, while the production has been growing by a mere half percent to one percent each year," Head of Central Java AEKI Mulyono Soesilo stated here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, coffee consumption remains high in foreign countries. For example, in the United States, coffee consumption is pegged around 400 million glasses in a day, or around 4,000 tons.
On the other hand, Central Java's coffee production has been in the range of 24 thousand tons a year. This means that if exported to the USA, all the coffee that Central Java produces in a year will be only enough to meet their needs for six days.
Furthermore, a company must have a buffer stock that can last for six months. As of now, such buffer stocks are merely enough to last 2 or 3 months, he added.
Therefore, he hoped that the government would not close its eyes towards this huge economic potential. According to him, the government needs to make efforts on several fronts related to coffee production.
"Actually, almost in all the regions in each of the Indonesian provinces, coffee plantations are there, but unfortunately, those are not optimized," Soesilo added.
He hoped that the government would take concrete steps in this regard, and will give incentives to farmers willing to grow coffee.
He added that it was important to give farmers education and enable them to grow better quality coffee, as well as help them acquire skills to enhance the yield.
"The government must set a minimum support price mechanism for coffee. If the price of coffee falls, the government should step in and buy coffee from the farmers at a pre-determined price. Whenever the price of coffee jumps, the government can release its stocks to keep the coffee price in the market stable," Soesilo explained.
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