Coffee from Indonesia is liked in Australia, but export volumes are still low

Jakarta –

Australians are known to be obsessed with coffee, but less than one percent of their coffee beans are produced from coffee plants cultivated in Australia.

Australia still depends on its coffee imports from a number of countries, such as Brazil.

Imported coffee from Indonesia is quite popular in Australia, although compared to Brazil, the volume and value of Indonesian coffee exports to Australia is lower.

“Coffee from Indonesia is liked by consumers here because it is generally Arabica with a richer taste,” said Ayu Siti Maryam from the Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) in Sydney.

However, according to Ayu, imported coffee from Indonesia is not appropriate when compared with coffee from Brazil, which is generally the Robusta type which tastes more bitter.

“It’s not comparable because one is Arabica and the other is Robusta,” said Ayu to ABC Indonesia journalist Farid M. Ibrahim, last Monday (01/03).

Head of ITPC Sydney Ayu Siti Maryam (ABC Landline: Halina Baczkowski)

The coffee culture in Australia, according to Simon Brooks, a professional coffee taster known in the industry as Q-grader, stems from the habits of Italians living in Melbourne.

“We (Australians) are one of the most educated coffee drinkers in the world,” he said.

“It all started in Melbourne among Italians and just kept growing from there,” explains Simon.

“When I first entered this industry in 2001, the second wave in coffee drinking culture was just taking place and that’s where specialty coffee (not instant coffee) began to develop,” he said.

Simon explained that coffee plantations in Australia are only able to produce around 400 tons of coffee beans, while the import volume reaches 80,000 tons.

Because of this, said Simon, Australian-produced coffee is very difficult to find on the market.

However, a number of farmers say coffee lovers are still ignoring local suppliers.

According to Candy MacLaughlin, the existence of coffee plantations in Australia may not be widely known.

One of the efforts made to get to know Australian-produced coffee is to introduce it to coffee milling companies.

“The ultimate goal is to get consumers to seek out Australian-produced coffee,” he said.

Produced by Farid M. Ibrahim with additional reporting from the ABC Landline program.

(ita/ita)