Indonesia is a special coffee producing country of both arabica and Robusta because it has many islands and a great diversity of products. Their crops produces unique coffee with heavy body and is very popular among specialty coffee drinkers.
CQI began its work in Indonesia from 2003 to 2006 through the GDA Coffee Corps program. There was a lot of focus on institutional development and an assessment of the industry, along with some cupping trainings and processing improvement. Over time, the Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia (SCAI) became CQI's In Country Partner and have done a good job unifying some of the Indonesian coffee industry, especially in the area of marketing, cupping competitions, and barista events.
In 2012, CQI started a 5 year program with ACDI/VOCA using USAID funding through a project called AMARTA. This had a very successful start. SCAI got fully established and many cuppers were able to become Q graders. Courses were taught at the field and mill level on several islands and a specially auction was very successful. A strategic plan was developed and started, but USAID funding was suddenly lost, so the project was shut down. Fortunately SCAI and CQI and one of CQI’s best instructors, Rocky Rhodes, have maintained activities for both arabica and Robusta.
In the future, CQI would like to engage with the Indonesian government or the World Bank to establish a strategy for improving the coffee sector of Indonesia and also the Robusta market.
There are currently 93 Q Arabica graders and 7 Q Robusta graders in Indonesia as well as 2 full fledged Q instructors, and their coffee is about 20% specialty.
