Will Indonesia’s recent spike in demand for its homegrown
luxury coffee eventually affect the global supply of top-shelf coffee?
By: Ringo Bones
Putting two and two together, it’s not that hard to see why
a growing local demand for its homegrown luxury coffee in Indonesia might mean
less of the good stuff available for foreigners that had acquired a taste for
Indonesian top-shelf coffee. But is this necessarily a bad thing?
Recent figures show that about a quarter of the world’s
supply of top-shelf coffee is grown and processed in Indonesia. Since the late
1990s, a new generation of Indonesian gourmet coffee aficionados and a steadily
growing number of gourmet coffee shops in every major metropolitan area across
Indonesia means that there could be less of this good stuff that will be
available to foreigners even though foreigners visiting Indonesia’s major
metropolitan areas can still find this top-shelf coffee with ease.
Though Indonesian coffee growers are growing more and more
coffee plants to meet both domestic and export demands, figures show that at
the levels they are currently expanding their coffee crops, demand will
outstrip supply in as little as two years time. Will a much needed capital
investments to Indonesia’s coffee farmers avert a “disastrous” global luxury
coffee shortage?
Premium coffee in Indonesia are sourced and handpicked from
tree ripened coffee beans. The high quality beans must be processed separately
from the lower grade ones because mixing the two and processing both results in
an inferior product. But these top-shelf coffee that used to destined for
export abroad are now increasingly destined for the local Indonesian gourmet
coffee market.
