Declining coffee market hits Lampung farmers hard
Declining coffee market hits Lampung farmers hard
Oyos Saroso
The Jakarta Post
Tanggamus, Lampung
Although people still enjoy drinking coffee at US$1.5 a mug at
Starbucks in the United States, Rp 5,000 (40 cents) at Plaza
Indonesia, or Rp 1,000 (10 cents) at beverage stands across the
country, coffee growers in Lampung are facing poverty because of
a declining coffee market.
Many coffee growers faced with the food crisis have to consume
locally-known tiwul (a dried cassava snack) because they can no
longer afford to purchase rice.
Jama'in, a 52-year-old coffee farmer on Panggung Island in
Tanggamus regency, told The Jakarta Post recently that
the stockpile crisis, prolonged drought, and sharp drop in coffee
prices have forced thousands of coffee farmers in the province to
eat tiwul as an alternative food.
According to him, coffee growers have had to cut down on
eating rice from three times to twice or even once a day because
rice prices have soared to between Rp 3,500 and Rp 4,000 per
kilogram.
All coffee farmers in the province have been hit hard and are
frustrated by the fall in the price of coffee to Rp 2,000 per
kilogram over the last eight months, from Rp 3,000 in January.
"We are forced to eat tiwul every day because our coffee
plantations are currently not bearing any produce."
Similarly, Rasta, a 40-year-old farmer from Atarlebar village,
Wonosobo Subdistrict, Tanggamus Regency, spoke of a similar
unpleasant story.
"Almost 200 of the 350 families in our village cannot afford
to buy rice. We have been forced to cook cassava instead," she
added.
She said that amid the paddy harvest season in Talangpadang,
rice remained expensive because their village was isolated.
Purwo, another coffee farmer in Talangpadang said that with
coffee sold at only Rp 2,000 per kilogram, his family was only
able to survive.
"Many farmers have gone to the city of Bandarlampung to find
jobs in the construction sector.
"For those who have capital, they can still grow vegetables
and nucleus plants on their farmland. But many farmers have
destroyed their coffee plants following the drastic drop in
coffee prices," he said.
Lampung is home to 126,429 families growing around 135,477
hectares of coffee with an annual production of at least 63,280
tons.
The province's main production centers are spread across the
regencies of West Lampung, Tanggamus, Way Kanan, North Lampung
and South Lampung.
Chairman of Lampung's Indonesian Coffee Exporters Association
(AEKI) Nuril Hakim accused other coffee-producing countries of
conspiring to decrease international prices by marking up the
their production levels.
With marked-up production, coffee prices in the London-based
international market face continuous pressures, undermining
coffee farmers in Indonesia, India and Vietnam, he said.
"Brazil's swelling coffee production has been exaggerated
causing coffee prices in the London market, which appeared fine
at between US$360 and $530 per ton in May, to drop to less than
$474 per ton," Nuril said.
As a result, he said coffee production in Indonesia was also
down by 10 percent to Rp 350,000 per ton.
He said the widespread destruction of coffee plants has also
contributed to the province's drastic decrease in coffee
production.
"Lampung supplies more than 65 percent of the nation's total
coffee production. If farmers destroy their coffee plants it
could affect national stocks," Nuril added.