Indonesia’s coffee industry continues to thrive, and Papua has recently become one of its’ prominent players. The land of Papua in the easternmost of Indonesia is home to many high-quality coffee beans producers from Wamena, Dogiyai, Arfak, and Ambaidiru. Out of all those places, only Ambaidiru in Kosiwo District, Yapen Regency, Papua, who focused on producing robusta coffee. Though it is still least known compared to other single-origin coffee in Papua, Ambaidiru steadily rises to prominence in Indonesia’s coffee industry.
Ambaidiru’s coffee started to become widely recognized through the Papuan Coffee Festival organized by Bank Indonesia back in 2018 in Jayapura. There were 11 farmer groups and 14 coffee shops across Papua who participated in the festival on August 3rd to 4th 2018. Total transactions from the festival reached a staggering amount of approximately 265 million Rupiah.
Yafet Rawai, the Chief of Manainin Village from Kosiwo District, Yapen Regency, participated in the festival. Manainin Village is one of four villages resulting from the expansion of Ambaidiru. In 2014, Ambaidiru expanded into four villages: Ambaidiru Village, Numaman Village, Ramangkurani Village, and Manainin Village. Representing his village, Yafet was accompanied by Titus Rawai, the Head of Village-Owned Enterprises Manainin. They didn’t bring many coffee beans to the festival, Titus said they only brought eight kilograms of green beans and five kilograms of ground coffee.
“A lot of people in the festival barely knew that there’s a robusta coffee in Papua that’s been developed in Yapen Regency. At that time, our booth got the most visitors” said Titus.
There was also a coffee auction during the festival. Arabica Coffee from Tiom, Lanny Jaya Regency, won the auction with a price of 5.300.000 million Rupiah for each kilo. This price broke the previous coffee auction held by coffee from Gunung Puntang, West Java, with the cost of 2 million Rupiah for each kilo. Ambaidiru coffee, the only robusta coffee in the auction, held the second position with the price of 1.125.000 million rupiahs for each kilo.
On the other hand, both arabica coffees from Timika and Walesi Village, Wamena, are sold with a price of 650.000 Rupiah. The other arabica coffee from Kurulu District and Kiwirok District was sold respectively at IDR350,000 and IDR300,000 per kilogram.
Shortly after the festival, Titus and Yafet got the chance to attend the official commemoration of the 73rd Independence Day of the Republic of Indonesia at the State Palace. Papua Regency Government assigned them to represent the local coffee farmers. In addition to Ambaidiru’s coffee, there was also coffee from Dogiyai, Lanny Jaya, and Wamena.
“I brought Ambaidiru’s coffee from the red bean, green bean, and ground coffee to be introduced to all the visitors who attended the ceremony. I also served Ambaidiru’s coffee in the palace. They told me that Ambaidiru’s coffee has a very flavorful aroma,” said Yafet recalling his memory.
Editor: I Gusti Ayu Azarine Kyla Arinta
