....shipment of Priangan coffee stopped in 1924 due to leaf rust pest attacking and destroying all coffee plants in West Java."Bandung, W Java (ANTARA News) - PT Morning Glory, West Java producer and processor of coffee known as Java Preanger Coffee, will be exporting a container or 18 tons of coffee to the Netherlands shortly.
"This year we are exporting 18 tons of the commodity to Holland," owner and coffee processor PT Morning Glory Coffee International, Nathanael Charis, said after giving a token of appreciation to five coffee growers and processors in Bandung on Sunday.
Nathanael said his company has been exporting Java Preanger coffee since 2009.
"In 2009, it was the first time that we exported one container of the coffee to Australia, and in 2011 we also planned to export the commodity but failed because of rains," he said.
He said since the past few centuries, the West Java coffee had always been awaited in the world.
This, he said, was proved when each ship of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) docked in Java Island, the coffee they brought became the main commodity besides spices and some other commodities.
"It was there that Priangan coffee, then known in Europe and in some other parts of the world as Java Coffee or Java Preanger Coffee," he said.
He added that Priangan coffee had become very popular because of its mildness.
"But later the shipment of Priangan coffee stopped in 1924 due to leaf rust pest attacking and destroying all coffee plants in West Java," Nathanael said.
He said in 1997 after the attack of leaf rust pest, the planting of the commodity was resumed in West Java, but using Arabica coffee seeds from Central Aceh.
"Then coffee lovers called them as Ateng coffee, referring to Central Aceh," he said.
Nathanael said since the coffee was exported in the form of basic material to several countries, an economic imbalance was the result between the price from the growers and the price on the international market.
It all were caused by those things, he added, as a coffee roaster he tried to shorten the distance to enable the growers and processors in West Java to enjoy the commodity better.
"And the only way would be making the brand Java Preanger Coffee an international standard," he said.
He tried to approach the traditional coffee growers and processors in West Java, and wished to educate them so that the coffee product could be accepted by the international market.
"But in the beginning there was no reaction, apparently seeing myself. But fortunately the West Java Plantation Service facilitated the meeting in Garut on May 13, 2008," he said.
The meeting was attended by West Java 150 coffee farmers and processors as well as buyers came from Australia, namely Toby Smith who explained the international coffee market.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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