Organic Arabica Blog

I have not yet come to a clear conclusion whether or not some examples of statements and actions that I want to present in the coming articles are obstacles or challenges. I want you, readers to tell me what they actually are. I hope that after at least three articles, we will have a clearer idea of what is actually happening. I do not want to pre-judge what is happening based on my very subjective perspective, because I myself am the player of coffee business in Papua and Papua Barat provinces of Indonesia. I want you, out there, to judge what this really is: challenge or obstacle? I actually want you to tell me that these are challenges, not obstacles, as a Papuan, and as a local as well as beginner in business world, I must acknowledge that I cannot cope with what is happening right now. When the governor of Papua, Lukas Enembe was inaugurated as the Governor of Papua, two days after that, he flew directly to my village, asking GIDI's Founder (GIDI is the Evangelical Church of Indonesia, and Lukas Enembe is a GIDI church member) to pray for him. The GIDI Founder, Rev. Ki'marek Karoba Tawy prayed for him, and gave him s few advice. By the Way, Rev. Ki'marek Tawy himself is a coffee farmer, he is the founder of the KSU Baliem Arabica (Baliem Arbaica Cooperative), the only cooperative, or business entity in Papua soil that has already successfully exported coffee directly from West Papua to the USA Market since November 2009. Rev. Ki'marek Tawy told the governor that he should focus on helping the coffee farmers. The governor said on the stage, openly that he will prioritise the development of Coffee in Papua Province. Today is 24 November 2015, since two years ago, Lukas Enembe made the promise. The coffee export was already happened since 2009, far before Lukas Enembe was elected as the governor. After Lukas came into office, he had not yet done anything for coffee development. Even he stopped the coffee export. His promise to coffee farmer has never become a reality. Lukas came to Rev. Kimarek's hometown asking for his prayer to support himself to be a good governor, but he has so far neglected the request from is own Pastor. I do not understand, whether or not this is an obstacle or a challenge. Let me know, I am Jhon Yonathan Kwano.

According to Selion Karoba, the chair of Koperasi Serba Usaha Baliem Arabica (Bailem Arabica Cooperative), western half of New Guinea (Papua and Papua Barat provinces of Indonesia) is more familiar with Arabica coffee.

Karoba notes

Papuan people know coffee is arabica. Even they will call coffee equals to arabica, and when you give them a robusta coffee, they will say, this arabica coffee is called robusta. Coffee is not separated from Arabica in the understanding of all Papuans.

When asked about whether or not this part of the world has some Robusta Coffee plantation, Karoba says that there are some Robusta Coffee trees around, but we cannot categorize them as plantation, because there are only a few trees around. For example, we can see robusta coffee trees around the Baliem Blue Coffee Warehouse in Kampung Harapan, Sentani Timur, Jayapura, Papua Province.

Theese Robusta Coffee trees were planted by the Kampung Harapan Agriculture Vocational School (SPMA Kampung Harapan) just as samples for teaching the students. They also have some coco trees in the same areas.

Karoba says,

There is also a need for Robusta Coffee plantation, but we need to properly manage arabica business and expand more into the highlands, before even thinking about robusta coffee. We need to optimize outcome of what we have first before talking about what we do not have right now. 

Robusta Coffee is not that familiar. Arabica coffee is familiar all around the Isle of New Guinea.

Papua Arabica Coffee consists of many single origins, but in Indonesia it is regarded as one single origin, that is, Papua Single Origin.

By the way, Papua is three times England in size, but coffee plantations and coffee business have been unknown until recently. In western part of New Guinea, Papua and Papua Barat provinces, it is only since 2007 that people here started doing business with coffee trees that we already have here since the Dutch colonial era.

They Dutch colonial power planted the coffee, but they did not explain how to process the coffee. Papuans knew that it was coffee, but we did not know how to process it from the forests into a cup of coffee.

After tens of years, then in 2007 a cooperative was set up in the highlands of West Papua (Papua province) under the assistance of AMARTA - USAID.

The coop Chair Ev. Selion Karoba, S.Th. says since then the Coop has exported Green Beans, Wamena Single Origin to the United States. Official export was made by the provincial government in December 2009, in Makasar International Port.

Mr. Karoba says, we only export Wamena Single Origin today, but we are looking forward to export many other single origins in years to come, such as follows

1. Wamena Single Origin
2. Dogiyai Single Origin
3. Goroka Single Origin
4. Deiyai Single Origin
5. Arfak Single Origin
6. Hagen Single Origin
7. Sigri Single Origin
8. Star Mountains Single Origin