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.