Press Release Indonesia Sustainable Coffee Forum 2020
Press Release
Jakarta, June 24th, 2020
For immediate release
Public-Private Partnership is Key to Achieve Sustainable Productivity Target and Market Stability of Coffee in Indonesia
Collaborative Discussions in Indonesia Sustainable Coffee Forum 2020
Coffee is one of the leading commodities of Indonesia’s foreign exchange sources. Based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2018, coffee export value has reached 815.9 million US dollars, with a volume of 279.9 thousand tons. On the other hand, Indonesia’s coffee productivity has not been optimal, which only 0.78 tons per hectare from an area of 1.24 million hectares. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 also had impacts on Indonesian coffee supply chain.
SCOPI Board Chairman, Irvan Helmi explained in his remarks at the opening of virtual coffee discussion (DISKO/Diskusi Kopi) (6/24) that in the last 10 years Indonesia has become a coffee consumer country as seen from the 2x increase in domestic coffee consumption, coffee imports up by 10x, coffee exports decreased by around 37%, but not comparable to production growth which only around 3-5%. “This is not bad news, it all gives 1 signal, opportunity. For this reason, SCOPI facilitates accelerating strategic partnerships for sustainable coffee. There are several dimensions in the effort towards sustainable coffee such as the dimensions of plantations (trees, land) with the majority of aging coffee plants, the environmental dimension that needs to be preserved, the institutional dimension of farmers, social and economic, trade dimension and dimension of downstream creativity that can leverage the identity of Indonesian coffee,” he said.
Series of virtual coffee discussions (DISKO) in Indonesia Sustainable Coffee Forum 2020
organized by the Sustainable Coffee Platform of Indonesia (SCOPI) on June 23-26, 2020, gathered various stakeholders in coffee sector such as Government institutions, business actors, field facilitators, coffee farmers and civil society organizations, to strengthen public-private partnership in achieving sustainable coffee productivity targets in Indonesia, also capturing innovations and aspirations in maintaining the stability of coffee market.
The 1st session of DISKO with topic of High-Level Discussion: Strategic Cooperation to Improve Sustainable Coffee Production in Indonesia, invited five speakers which are Minister of Cooperatives and SME, Teten Masduki; Deputy of Products, Tourism and Activities Organizer Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Ir. Rizki Handayani, MBTM; Deputy of Food and Agribusiness Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, Musdalifah Machmud; and Director of Business Development of Social Forestry and Indigenous Forest Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ir. Bagus Herudojo Tjiptono, M.P.
Teten Masduki explained that his ministry had prepared various stimuli for cooperatives and SMEs including those affected by COVID-19, such as credit relief and access to financial institutions. In addition, also preparing a cooperative business model of society-based economy, including commodities in social forestry area, as well as digitalization programs for cooperatives. “The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs will work according to our duties and functions, which is helping to develop a populist economy based business model. For commodities in social forestry area we are working with Perhutani and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. We hope that we can also collaborate with SCOPI in the downstream sector. We prioritize 7-10 pilot projects to become role models for the development of cooperatives in agriculture, plantations and fisheries,” he said.
The efforts to encourage coffee businesses to increase market and digital sales are also supported by Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Rizki Handayani explained that she saw the development of coffee sector from two sides, the development in tourism side and creative economy side. “For tourism, we are currently preparing a coffee tourism promotion package in coffee-producing regions in Indonesia. In terms of the creative economy, Indonesia’s coffee branding strategy is also being prepared. So it’s not just coffee branding with a particular regional origin, but the branding of Indonesian Coffee. We arrange the marketing strategy, also through various coffee events both locally and abroad,” she explained.
In line with that, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs presented 4 strategies that could be taken to optimize coffee marketing. “The strategy of utilizing e-commerce, collaboration strategy with various parties such as Toko Tani and trade attaches, strategy of optimizing the use of warehouse receipt systems and improvement of promotion strategy in online media. We see the volume of Indonesian coffee exports in January – April 2020 increased 158.78 tons or 1.34% compared to the same period in 2019 and Indonesian coffee has a history of being reliable and consumed coffee in the world, so we need to improve the added value for coffee,” said Mrs, Musdhalifah Machmud.
Ministry of Environment and Forestry also supported the efforts to increase coffee productivity through granting permits for coffee plantations in social forest areas located in several provinces, such as West Java as well as developing social business groups. “We support how coffee can be produced in social forests without destructing the areas, so we set several arrangements so the biodiversity is maintained. We also develop social business groups, which are divided into platinum groups which are the independent groups, gold, silver and blue groups, with coffee as their mainstay commodity. There are currently 433 social business groups for coffee. We expect that with agroforestry practices, farmers are able to increase land productivity as well as their income,” said Mr. Bagus Herudojo Tjiptono.
Paramita Mentari Kesuma, SCOPI Executive Director explained that one of the pillars in SCOPI Theory of Change is to collaborate SCOPI agenda with Government policies and programs that related to achieve sustainable coffee production and increase livelihood.
SCOPI has collaborated with various Ministries / Institutions at national and local levels in implementing our programs and activities. Through this forum, SCOPI aim to capture aspirations, insights and updates of policy directions related to sustainable coffee production, post-COVID-19 recovery strategies and how coffee supply chain actors can work collaboratively with Indonesian Government to improve coffee farmers livelihoods. From this 1st session of DISKO, we obtained input that SCOPI can participate in strengthening coffee community networks, especially among youth who are involved in coffee business, and bridging coordination between Indonesian Government and cooperatives / SMEs,” said Mentari.
The virtual coffee discussion series will also raise the topic of International Perspective on the Future of Indonesia’s Sustainable Coffee that is scheduled on June 25th, 2020 with speakers from Ministry of Trade, foreign academics as well as domestic and foreign coffee associations. Other topic of Innovation in Dealing with the Impact of COVID-19 in the Indonesian Coffee Sector will be the closing discussion on June 26th, 2020 with speakers from Indonesia coffee business owners.
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About SCOPI
Sustainable Coffee Platform of Indonesia (SCOPI) is a non-profit organization with a legal form of an association for multi-stakeholders who care about the development and sustainability of coffee in Indonesia. SCOPI aims to develop and provide shared learning practices in coffee commodities development in Indonesia, ranging from cultivation practices, postharvest, strengthening farmers organizations, market access, financial access, geographical indications, as well as increasing Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) with the objective to increase economic opportunities for farmers, food security and environmental sustainability.