Indonesian coffee production to reach 10.9m in 2024/25 adding nearly 2.8m bags
December 22 - 2024
Coffee Geography Magazine
Indonesia Arabica and Robusta harvest is forecast to rebound nearly 2.8 million bags to 10.9 million. Robusta output is expected to recover 2.7 million bags to 9.5 million on favorable growing conditions in the lowland areas of Southern Sumatra and Java where approximately 75 percent is grown. Last year’s crop suffered from excessive rain during cherry development and caused sub-optimal conditions for pollination. Arabica production is seen rising slightly to 1.4 million bags. Elevated output is expected to translate to exports gaining 2.2 million bags to 6.5 million.
Coffee cultivation in Indonesia began in the late 1600s and early 1700s, in the early Dutch colonial period, and has played an important part in the growth of the country. Indonesia is geographically and climatologically well-suited for coffee plantations, near the equator and with numerous interior mountainous regions on its main islands, creating well-suited microclimates for the growth and production of coffee.
The Dutch governor in Malabar (India) sent arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) seedlings from Yemen to the Dutch governor of Batavia (now Jakarta) in 1696. The first seedlings failed due to flooding in Batavia. The second shipment of seedlings was sent in 1699 with Hendrik Zwaardecroon. The plants grew, and in 1711 the first exports were sent from Java to Europe by the Dutch East India Company—formally Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie and abbreviated VOC—reaching 2,000 pounds shipped in 1717. Coffee arriving in Amsterdam had sold for high prices, 1 kg (2 lb) costing nearly one per cent of the average annual income. Indonesia was the first place at the time, outside Yemen and Ethiopia, where coffee was widely cultivated.
Dutch-owned plantations on Java were nationalized in the 1950s, soon after independence. and are now managed as state-owned plantations under PTPN, Perusahaan Terbatas Perkebunan Nusantara, and revitalized with new varieties of Coffea arabica in the 1950s. These varieties were also adopted by smallholders through the government and various development programs.