Indonesia plans to boost output of aromatic and higher value arabica coffee to benefit from high prices, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Friday. High-value and aromatic arabica only accounts for 15 percent of total coffee output from the world's second-largest producer of robusta which is used to make instant coffee.
"We will focus our programme on arabica coffee because it has high prices and our arabica coffees have been well-known in the market," Ahmad Mangga Barani, director general of plantations at the Agriculture Ministry, told Reuters in an interview.
Under the programme, Indonesia aims to boost production of arabica coffee to 81,000 tonnes by 2010, from an estimated 64,375 tonnes this year, data from the agriculture ministry shows.
The increase will come by expanding arabica plantations to 130,000 hectares by 2010 from around 101,867 hectares. The programme includes replanting ageing arabica coffee trees with high-yield plants, expansion of plantations in new and suitable areas and pilot projects to develop gourmet, organic arabica, Ahmad said.
The country's arabica coffee is grown in northern Sumatra, east Java, Sulawesi and Bali. Aceh and North Sumatra account for 80 percent of Indonesia's output of arabica coffee. Sumatra arabica is known for its fruity and slightly earthy flavour.
Arabica Sumatra Mandelin costs around $3,100-$3,200 per tonne, free on board Belawan port in north Sumatra, more expensive than robusta which fetches $1,810-$1,820 a tonne. But Ahmad said arabica coffee will not replace existing robusta coffee because lack of suitable land would restrict expansion plans. "Arabica can only be grown in highlands above 1,100 metres above sea level. So any expansion will be limited," he said.
The government plans to boost robusta coffee yields from the existing 1.227 million hectares of plantations, of which 96 percent are run by smallholders. The government will provide high-yield plants to replant ageing coffee trees, Ahmad said.
The replanting programme is expected to boost robusta coffee output to 650,000 tonnes by 2010, from an estimated 637,162 tonnes this year, data from the Agriculture Ministry shows. Robusta coffee is grown in Lampung, South Sumatra and Bengkulu. Coffee output from the three provinces accounts for three-quarters of Indonesia's coffee bean output.