Yuppies keep coffee shops on the boil<\/p>\n
Grace Nirang, Reuters, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesian farmers may be fed up with the low prices they get for
\ntheir coffee but young people in the world's fourth most populous
\ncountry can not get enough of the trendy bean.<\/p>\n
Farmers in the world's fourth largest producer desperately
\nwant out of coffee, but plans are brewing in the big cities for
\neven more trendy cafes serving the stuff.<\/p>\n
The Coffee Bean opened in one of Jakarta's glitziest malls in
\nJanuary and the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks, has
\nannounced plans to expand into Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Home-grown modern cafes with Italian or French names dot
\nalmost every mall, although foreign coffee chains are just
\nentering the Indonesian market.<\/p>\n
For investors, the draw is obvious: Indonesia's growing middle
\nand upper classes.<\/p>\n
The world's most populous Muslim nation may still be in
\ncrisis, but do not tell that to customers lounging at The Coffee
\nBean (TCB) in upmarket Plaza Senayan in south Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Sure, the coffee is expensive, but it's the lifestyle that
\nwe've bought,\" accountant Tri Wahyu Sampurno said, as he sipped
\nhis tall mochachino.<\/p>\n
There's a strong demand for \"the modern yuppie lifestyle\" and
\ndrinking coffee is part of it, TCB managers say.<\/p>\n
\"The coffee business is booming. It's a matter of getting the
\nright concepts and tapping into what the middle class wants,\"
\nsaid Arifian Gustiandi, operations manager at TCB franchisee PT
\nTiga Satu Tiga Dwima.<\/p>\n
A regular mocha-ice-blended drink at TCB costs Rp 25,000
\n(US$2.69) -- more than a day's wage for the average Indonesian
\nfactory worker.<\/p>\n
Perth-based chain Dome opened its second outlet in Jakarta
\nlast year, less than a year after starting up.<\/p>\n
Lukman Hakim, assistant manager at TCB, said: \"It's trendy to
\nbe seen at our shop. It's not just the coffee, it's the idea of
\ndrinking expensive coffee too.\"<\/p>\n
Over the next five years, TCB plans nine more outlets in the
\ncountry's biggest cities.<\/p>\n
Some may think that a touch ambitious for a vast archipelago
\nmore accustomed to exporting its coffee than drinking it.<\/p>\n
But there's no shortage of optimism in the sector.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia has a strong coffee culture, but it has been much
\nmore focused on the growing side. We hope we can contribute to
\ndevelop the local side of consumption, help convince the local
\nconsumer that quality coffee tastes good,\" said a manager at
\nStarbucks's partner, Mitra Adiperkasa.<\/p>\n
Yet Indonesia still has a long way to go before it can rival
\nJapan as Asia's largest coffee consumer.<\/p>\n
Even before the economic crisis of the late 1990s, Indonesia's
\nannual domestic coffee consumption was just half a kg per person,
\nor about 120,000 tonnes every year.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Coffee Exporters' Association (AEKI) estimates
\nconsumption at 100,000 tonnes, a slight recovery after hitting
\n80,000 tonnes at the worst point of the crisis in 1998.<\/p>\n
Only a few years ago, consumption of gourmet blends was close
\nto non-existent.<\/p>\n
But thanks to home-grown cafes that have mushroomed since the
\nlate 1990s, many youngsters -- flush with pocket money from their
\nparents -- now prefer to drink cappuccinos, mochachinos and cafe
\nlattes rather than tea or colas.<\/p>\n
For upwardly mobile professionals such as Sampurno, Jamaican
\nBlue Mountain and Sumatran Mandheling are names of gourmet beans,
\nnot simply tourist resorts.<\/p>\n
The irony is that TCB and Starbucks buy mostly arabica raw
\nbeans from producing nations and process them in the United
\nStates or elsewhere before bringing them back for sale at
\ninflated prices.<\/p>\n
\"So far, I see no positive impact from the producer side.
\nThose coffee chains serve imported beans, they rarely serve our
\nrobustas,\" AEKI Executive Secretary Rachim Kartadibrata said.<\/p>\n
The country's coffee output has been falling in the past three
\nyears as weak prices -- robusta at 30-year lows last year --
\ndeter farmers from planting coffee and maintaining plants.<\/p>\n
Indonesian grade four robusta beans now sells at Rp 4,000\/kg,
\njust enough to buy one kg of rice.<\/p>\n
But the new coffee culture could bring a glimmer of hope to
\ndomestic producers -- who grow 90 percent robusta and 10 percent
\narabica -- through the possibility of a share of the growing
\nmarket, by encouraging consumption of domestic blends.<\/p>\n
\"We have a lot of gourmet varieties, some of them have never
\neven been heard of in the international market,\" said Litha
\nBrent, who runs Sulawesi-based CV Gumer trading house.<\/p>\n
\"Our good quality robustas have appealing and acceptable taste
\ncharacteristics... I don't see any reason why it can't be sold in
\ninternational chains,\" one trader said.<\/p>",
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