SOURCE: http://www.agweek.com/news/nation-and-world/3923384-indonesia-targets-growth-coffee-bean-output
JAKARTA - Indonesia's coffee bean production is targeted to increase 9 percent to 600,000 tons in 2016, up from 550,000 tons last year, the country's coffee exporters association said, amid a growing market for the drink domestically and overseas.
According to Irfan Anwar, chairman of Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters and Industries, there is a bright future for coffee in Indonesia and Asia.
"It will definitely improve," Anwar said, noting that ASEAN economies were growing faster than their Asian neighbours and that Asia already led the world in terms of coffee demand growth.
"In Europe (consumption) growth just stays around 1 percent. In Asia it's 5-8 percent," he said.
World robusta coffee demand is expected to grow briskly in the coming months, driven by rising consumption in emerging economies, and will sharply outpace stagnant demand for arabica.
Rapid expansion of Indonesia's coffee industries and a growing culture of coffee drinkers and outlets in Indonesia were also reasons to be positive about the sector, Anwar said on Wednesday.
"They look for good quality coffee, not just instant or low-grade," he said, adding that Indonesia's domestic coffee consumption, combined with imports, is equivalent to around 40 percent of production.
The near 10 percent depreciation of the Indonesian rupiah against the U.S. dollar in 2015 had shielded coffee farmers against declining commodity prices last year, Anwar said, noting that Indonesia's coffee production had declined 8 percent from 600,000 tons in 2014.
"The problem was with the weather - El Nino made harvest productivity decline," he said.
The El Nino, a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific, can lead to scorching weather in Asia and East Africa but heavy rains and flooding in South America.
Indonesia has forecast that the La Nina weather pattern, the counterpart to El Nino, will strengthen from mid-2016.
Despite advances in agricultural technology and "good prices," Indonesia's coffee production was still lower in terms of productivity compared to Brazil and Vietnam, he said.
Coffee farmers in Indonesia, the world's third biggest grower of Robusta, produce around 700 kilograms of coffee per hectare of plantation, while Brazilian coffee growers harvest 3 tonnes and Vietnamese farmers get 2.3 tonnes, he said.
There are about 2 million smallholder coffee growers in Indonesia, with robusta accounting for 80 percent and arabica most of the remainder.
"Hopefully farmers will take more care and improve their awareness of developments."
