The Choppy Waters of Climate Change Across the Indonesian Archipelago 

Water. It was flowing everywhere we went, rare for an origin trip, especially when coffee has been harvested and needs to be dried. Moisture was ever-present, both in the coffee and in the air, and managing it has become increasingly challenging due to the changing climate. We witnessed this across every farm we visited. No one was immune. Throughout our travels, climate and weather patterns were the main points of discussion. Principally, this is because the weather has become so unpredictable of late.

Our trip started in Medan and we travelled up country to Aceh. There are two main coffee districts in Aceh: Bener Meriah and Aceh Tengah. They produce the majority of certified Arabica from the island of Sumatra and this is where some of our key relationships reside.

Sumatra: Koperasi Permata Gayo

Our longest-standing relationship in the island of Sumatra is with Koperasi Permata Gayo (KPG), located in Bener Meriah. Farmers we spoke with said that while harvest times used to follow a clear pattern (with a main crop and a fly crop), this has changed dramatically in recent years. Every season now brings something different.

This unpredictability has serious implications. For farmers, cash flow is harder to plan. For cooperatives, financing needs vary more than ever. KPG now only sells coffee a maximum of three months ahead to ensure they can fulfil contracts. Any further is too risky given the variability in volumes and timing. This is challenging for importers and roasters who may prefer to commit earlier, but short-term planning has become a necessity for sustainable operation.

This year, increased rainfall has cut yields: typically an average of 1 metric tonne per hectare of green coffee down to 700kg. Planting more shade trees offers some mitigation, but it’s a fine balance: too many, and moisture becomes an issue again. Rain has a big impact on the blooming process and currently there is no clear solution to the ever changing rain patterns and their severity.  

On a brighter note, KPG runs a youth programme that encourages young people to join the cooperative, ensuring a new generation of coffee growers is being trained and supported.

North Sumatra: Pt Sari Makmur & Wahana Estate

Pt Sari Makmur is a private exporter and our longest standing relationship in Indonesia; it dates back to when Derrick, the DR in DRW, was in charge of purchasing! It’s a relationship we’re very proud of. From our range we mainly buy from Sari Makmur coffee that comes from Wahana Estate and Wahana Community in Sumatra with some volume from other islands such as Sulawesi and Java.

Given the breadth of their sourcing, stretching across the whole of the Indonesian archipelago, it was interesting to hear what their biggest challenges currently are. Naturally, tariffs were a topic that came up a lot. The ensuing uncertainty prompted a lot of discussions on possible impacts and outcomes. But, just as we saw in Aceh with KPG, climate change and its effects (both on the farm and at the regulatory level) was the dominant challenge.

Wahana estate is in North Sumatra, the region just south of Aceh where KPG is based. It also has two harvests and shares the same challenges we saw in Aceh. Wahana grows vegetables in addition to coffee and they said that all their products are increasingly being affected by the changing climate. Again like KPG, there wasn’t a clear solution other than trying to be as flexible as possible and trying to adapt to the new normal. This necessity of flexibility is crucial to swimming with the tide, not against it.

Although other islands in Indonesia don’t have two harvests like Sumatra does, predicting the timing of their harvests has also become harder and harder to do. It seems that contracting now only starts when coffee begins to appear in the warehouse, as the old harvest times you used to be able to rely upon are no longer reliable. To add to this, compliance is also on the up! The extra demands to comply with the European Deforestation Regulation has meant that coffee has never been harder to work with.

Luckily for Sari Makmur, they are ready for EUDR. The reason why, is because just like us, they have long standing relationships with the producers they work with. Many of these relationships also stretch back decades, and therefore, it was a more manageable process (although a big admin task!) for them to get the geo-coordinates and other requirements the legislation requires.

Bali: Koperasi Sapta Winangun Kerti

We said goodbye to Sumatra and travelled South to Bali to visit a producer group there called Koperasi Sapta Winangun Kerti. It was the first time we have visited or tried their coffee and were taken there by our export partner Indokom, who provides technical assistance to the group and export their coffee.

The cooperative was set up in 2016 and they produce Organic and Rainforest Certified wet hulled and natural coffees. Bali’s topography is very different from that of Sumatra, and although it has suffered from increasing rainfall, it struggles to access this water due to its topography. In contrast to the highlands of Sumatra, where there are rivers and wells and access to water is easy, due to the steep incline of the Bali Mountains, rainfall quickly runs off the mountain to sea level. This is a long-standing challenge for the cooperative, and well by well, they are building more water security for the community and communal wet mills.

Unlike Sumatra, where producers usually deliver parchment, members here bring in cherry, and processing starts at the communal wet mills. Indokom takes over once the coffee is in parchment, and they said that the communal processing at the cherry stage is evident in the more consistent green preparation and in the cup. 

After our very brief visit to the mountains in Bali we turned north to our final island and the one that many people use as a name for coffee: Java. 

Java: Surya Abadi Kayumas

In East Java, we work with a cooperative called Surya Abadi Kayumas. From Situbondo, a town at sea level where Indokom mills their coffee for export, you drive two hours up the mountain to Kayumas. It’s a cooperative with 145 members, and they process coffee: natural, natural anaerobic, and giling basah.

They became Fairtrade a few years ago and are really passionate about the certification and how it has improved their community. The social premium has largely been spent on improving the roads in this remote mountainous area, which has enabled them to harvest and transport their coffee more easily, reducing costs. They are also Organic and Rainforest certified, so they have the ‘triple’ certified angle, and it was amazing to see how they produce coffee in such a harmonious way with their surroundings.  

Of course, like everyone, their harvest times have been changing in the past few years, but unlike some of the other islands we visited, rainfall was more stable. However, average temperatures have certainly risen, and they were trialling a number of shade trees to see if they could help with that.  

Saimi, the founder of Indokom, thought that a good strategy was to have a higher percentage of younger trees on the farm; this would ensure that there were always some trees that had grown up in each year of this ever-changing climate.  

Although we encountered numerous examples of ingenuity and adaptability, hopefully, the climate will settle into a more predictable rhythm, so this will not be required. The farming methods we saw are sustainable, and we will do our best to support these communities and promote their coffee. Watch this space!