USAID and PT.Freeport Support Cocoa Development in Papua

AMARTA-PADA grantee, Baliem Arabica Cooperative passed inspection by the CERES organization and received Organic Certification status. 9 OCTOBER 2009

Recently, AMARTA-PADA grantee, Baliem Arabica Cooperative passed inspection by the CERES organization and received Organic Certification status. This means that the coffee farmers who are members of the Cooperative successfully demonstrated their comprehension and compliance in growing their coffee organically. In the next quarter the Cooperative members will be inspected by another independent organization, the Rainforest Alliance to ensure the coffee farmers comply with additional rules and regulations. These internationally recognized certifications provide a stamp of approval for the international community and result in a premium price for the Cooperative’s coffee.

The Cooperative also recently gained two new customers interested in purchasing Baliem Valley Arabica coffee. The Amungme Gold Coffee Company, which owns a roasting and packaging facility in Timika recently completed a deal to purchase one ton of green bean coffee, with the possibility to increase the volume in the future.

The second customer is PT. Pangansari Utama, which is the catering company at PT. Freeport Indonesia who agreed to buy 12 tons of roasted coffee from the Cooperative per year, or one ton a month, at a price of Rp54,000 per kg. The profit from both deals will go straight to the farmers’ Cooperative to continue buying coffee at a fair price and provide technical and material assistance as needed to the coffee farmers throughout the Baliem Valley.