TEMPO.CO, Makassar - Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman said that Indonesia is aiming to become the second largest coffee producer. Therefore, farmers are expected to step up production from 691,000 tons in 2016 to 1 million ton this year.
"We are now [in] the fourth [rank]. We need to increase [production] to 1 million ton. If we can achieve it, we will rank second in the world," he said yesterday, July 31, in Makassar.
The minister said that the world’s largest coffee producers are Vietnam, Colombia, and Brazil.
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Amran said that the government's target is quite realistic considering that there are several regions in Indonesia that produce coffee, such as Sulawesi, Aceh and Bengkulu. Accordingly, the Agriculture Ministry has prepared a strategy to push up plantation productivity, including by providing free seeds and fertilizers.
Data from Directorate General of Plantation, the Agriculture Ministry, shows that Indonesia is home to 1,233,483 hectares of coffee plantation in 2017, comprising of 912,135 hectares of robusta coffee plantation and 321,158 hectares of arabica coffee plantation.
So far, Indonesia’s coffee production has reached 637,000 tons on 1.1 million hectares of land or 707 kilograms per hectare. On the target to increase coffee production, Amran said, the government has opened 200 hectares new land in Kalimantan. "We will rejuvenate land and educate farmers," he noted. He added that improved seeding will be carried out to improve coffee quality in a bid to compete in the global market.
DIDIT HARIYADI
