Papua Arabica and Papua Robusta: Arabica is more Familiar

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.

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.