Some Sumatra farmers abandon plantations<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Hundreds of Indonesian farmers have
\nabandoned coffee plantations in Sumatra because of low
\ninternational prices, while Vietnamese growers start to cultivate
\nother crops to survive, traders said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
London robusta futures dropped to a fresh 30-year low on
\nMonday, with the September contract ending $8 lower at $525 per
\nton. Prices rebounded to $531 on Tuesday but fell back to close
\nat $527 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\"It's very sad. We've been in such a sorry state in the past
\ntwo years. How can farmers eat if prices stay low like this,\" a
\ntrader in Bengkulu, Sumatra, told Reuters by telephone.<\/p>\n
\"Thousands of hectares of coffee plantations have been
\nabandoned. Farmers shifted to cultivating rice or going into the
\nforests to collect resin. Many plantations were not even
\nharvested last year.\"<\/p>\n
Rising prices of fertilizer in crisis-hit Indonesia is another
\nreason many farmers decided to find other sources of income. Some
\nhave become construction workers instead.<\/p>\n
Grade four robusta beans in Sumatra were quoted at around
\n3,600 rupiah ($0.32) per kg this week, compared with around 6,000
\nrupiah\/kg in early 2000 as increases in global supplies put
\nconstant pressure on the London market.<\/p>\n
At current coffee prices, farmers can only buy one kg of rice
\ncompared with three kg two years ago.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's coffee plantations were estimated at 1.1 million
\nhectares in 2000. The provinces of south Sumatra, Bengkulu and
\nLampung account for 75 percent of output.<\/p>\n
\"The world only cares about one thing -- there is an
\noversupply. Vietnam has put so much pressure on the market,\" said
\nthe Bengkulu-based trader.<\/p>\n
Some traders in Indonesia blamed Vietnam, the world's largest
\nrobusta producer, for failing to curb production.<\/p>\n
In Vietnam, where robusta grade two, five percent black and
\nbroken, dived to a record low of $380 per ton for spot, FOB
\nSaigon, this week, traders said growers started to cultivate
\nvegetables and other cash crops to compensate.<\/p>\n
Vietnam's 2001\/2002 coffee crop output is forecast to drop
\nbetween 20 and 30 percent from some 840,000 tons in the 2000\/2001
\ncrop due to lower use of fertilizer.<\/p>\n
\"We found out that some people cut down younger trees at the
\nend of the last crop\" but that did not necessarily mean a long-
\nterm switch from coffee, said one trader in Vietnam.<\/p>\n
He said growers were unlikely to abandon their plantations,
\nbut would produce something else as well, like vegetables.<\/p>\n
In Sumatra in Indonesia, the robusta harvest that started in
\nApril had come to an end with daily arrivals recorded at up to
\n500 tons this week, unchanged from last week.<\/p>\n
The Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters recently cut
\nits 2000\/2001 output forecast to 340,000 tons from 380,000 tons
\non heavy rains followed by fears of drought in Sumatra.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/some-sumatra-farmers-abandon-plantations-1447893297",
"image": ""
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