Indonesia is one of the world’s largest coffee producers and exporters. Currently, Indonesia has roughly 1.24 million hectares of coffee plants, with 933 hectares of Robusta coffee plantations and 307 hectares of Arabica coffee farms. Small-scale farmers cultivate more than 90% of the entire plantations, with average landholdings of 1-2 hectares per coffee farmer. Large coffee farms controlled by the commercial sector or the government do not exist in Indonesia yet, making it difficult to maintain consistent production volume and quality.
Coffee is a Pandawa Agri Indonesia smallholder initiation commodity that is focused directly on farmers. Since 2018, we’ve been focusing on activities in Pagar Alam, South Sumatra. The potential of Pagar Alam robusta coffee is well known from remote corners of the country to foreign countries.
Unfortunately, Pagar Alam coffee is still unable to catch up with other regional coffees such as Semendo Coffee (Lahat), Lampung Coffee, Kerinci Coffee (Jambi), and also Gayo Coffee (Aceh). Ironically, most of the coffee from Pagar Alam ends up in Lampung, so Pagar Alam Coffee becomes Lampung Coffee when it comes to switches regions.
Pandawa Agri Indonesia believes that Pagar Alam Coffee, which is known for its thick and bitter coffee, has a big future, especially now that several young coffee farmers are concerned with good and proper coffee farming operations to maximize the quality and quantity of Pagar Alam coffee.
As a result, Pandawa Agri Indonesia working side to side with coffee farmers in Pagar Alam to provide knowledge about plant cultivation, harvesting, post-harvest, and weed management to help them get the most out of their plants. Hearing coffee farmers in the South Sumatra were having issues with pesticide MRL (Maximum Residue Levels) from foreign markets, especially in the use of chlorpyrifos insecticides and glyphosate herbicides, Pandawa Agri Indonesia is trying to assist them with PAI reductants and intervention. PAI reductants and intervention will help farmers meet the MRL standard because Pandawa Agri Indonesia reductants can reduce 50% or half of the farmers’ herbicides usage and could save farmers input costs about 15%. Pandawa Agri Indonesia is currently looking for a partner from several associated coffee players to adopt PAI reductants and interventions to gain improved market access.