My sipping-coffee experience
by Diana Gultom

Friends, I want to share a bit of my ‘sipping-coffee’ experience… Prepare your nice favorite drink to read the rest of the writing…

Today, I decided to spend my time at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Kemang, Jakarta. I bought a glass of iced coffee latte since I chose to stay outdoors. While sipping it bit by bit, I’ve thought about the process how they make it.

Many places like this keep on growing, especially here in Jakarta. Not to mention “Starbucks and friends.” In these shops, they sell several coffee variations from many areas in Indonesia. They sell Gayo Coffee from Aceh, Toraja Coffee from Sulawesi, Sidikalang Coffee from North Sumatera, and Lampung Coffee from Lampung in the Southern Sumatera, among others.

My coffee is half full now. And by this time, more people are now arriving; some with their laptops, accessing the internet in this Wi-Fi area. Others are talking about political bargain over their cups of coffee since soon will be election time.

Suddenly, something crossed my mind. What has been happening to the coffee farmers who produce the marvelous and even expensive coffee in the world? I am wondering if parliamentary candidates care about their livelihood. My heart would have wanted to answer this. But then again, I don’t think so.

The coffee farmers are only getting IDR13,000 to IDR14,000 (approximately USD1.1) per kilogram! While seller will gain even much more than that for a cup of coffee. The one that I bought now cost me IDR32,000 (USD3) per cup. Much more expensive than what the farmers get.

Well, you wouldn’t pour one kilogram per glass, will you? Mainly the coffee is being blended with other ingredients, such as water, milk, and sugar.

For the brand patent, the Netherlands has bought the patent for ‘Kopi Gayo’ and Japan has also bought the patent for ‘Kopi Toraja’. The farmers are left out with the cheap coffee which they can only sell without those names now without bargaining position.

For me, this is not merely about ‘robbing’ the brand, but also about ‘robbing’ their identity. Gayo and Toraja are supposedly the people’s exclusive rights. It’s their name, their area, their rights! No one have the right to take that away it from them, not even on behalf of ‘I have the money to buy it, I can buy the patent’. It’s their indigenous’ patent.

I think this is all I want to share for now while finishing my cup of coffee. Have a nice day friends.

Oops, by the way, please do rethink over if you plan to buy coffee from Starbucks and friends. For me, I will surely have second thoughts about doing so. They have lots and lots of bucks already.

*Diana is presently with Debtwatch.