Quits Job, Starts Mobile Coffee Shop

Ihsyan Fauzi quit his job as a doctor. Over the last two years, he has run a mobile coffee shop. Every afternoon, he drives around Takengon town in Central Aceh district, in his mobile coffee shop.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

Ihsyan Fauzi, owner of Gayo One Mobile Coffee.

In order to be free from the hands of powerful middlemen, coffee farmers in Aceh have sucessfully created their own markets. The coffee beans they produce from their own plantations are now processed into a variety of high-value products. This is the new era of the people’s coffee.

Ihsyan Fauzi, 41, quit his job as a doctor. Over the last two years, he has run a mobile coffee shop. Every afternoon, he drives around Takengon town in Central Aceh district, Aceh province, in his mobile coffee shop. He stops when he reaches a place with many people, and opens his mobile coffee shop.

He sets up benches and tables on the sidewalk, and uses the back of his van as a bar.

Jars filled with roasted coffee beans are arranged alongside a coffee grinder and a small espresso machine. When a customer arives and orders cup of coffee, he mills the coffee beans from the jar. Everything is prepared fresh. As the coffee is brewing, the coffee fills the air with its unique aroma.

Ihsyan is one of the pioneers of the mobile coffee business in Aceh’s Gayo highlands, where business has been booming the last two years. Today, more than 50 mobile coffee shops operate in Gayo, from Central Aceh and Bener Meriah to Gayo Lues.

Starting a mobile coffee shop is easy and relatively cheap, requiring a capital of only Rp 30 million to Rp 50 million. And the business is quite profitable. Ihsyan sells at least 100 cups of coffee every day, making a profit of around Rp 1.5 million (about US$110).

Ihsyan decided to open a mobile coffee business out of his concern for the fate of the coffee farmers in his village. Ihsyan, who grew up in the village, was saddened to see the state of the farmers’ livelihood. As the price of coffee beans was very low, most farmers were unable to meet their families’ daily needs, let alone send their children to school. Ihsyan’s own father worked hard to finance his studies to become a doctor.

After moving to Jakarta, Ihsyan found irony every time he stopped by a coffee shop: A cup of coffee cost up to Rp 40,000. "Crazy! Very expensive," he said. It was far more expensive than at a traditional coffee shop in Aceh, which is known as a coffee heaven. Coffee beans in Takengon sell for only Rp 60,000 per kilogram.

One kilogram of ground coffee can be used to brew 100 cups of coffee. At Rp 40,000 per cup, it would bring in up to Rp 4 million in profit. "With a small capital, a coffee shop owner can reap huge profits," he said.

Ihsyan finally decided to return to Gayo. He used the savings he had made from his job as a doctor to modify a used pickup truck. He bought coffee machines, shelves, tables and chairs. He made the interior of the coffee truck as attractive as possible in order to attract customers.

He also manages his father\'s 2-hectare coffee plantation in his village. Some of the harvested coffee is used at his mobile coffee shop. He sells black coffee, milk coffee, cappuccinos and espressos for an average Rp 10,000 per cup. "It’s not expensive," he said. In addition, he also sells coffee beans and ground coffee.

Gayo coffee is known worldwide for its unique aroma and taste. Coffee cultivation and production supports the regional economy and meets the needs of the local market. However, the farmers’ livelihood is in stark contrast to the coffee industry’s positive contribution to the regional economy. Many farmers are trapped in debts they owe to middlemen. They are often forced to sell their raw coffee beans at very low prices to pay off their debts.

The middlemen also control the Arabica coffee farmers in Cikajang, Garut regency, West Java. Some farmers sell their raw coffee beans for Rp 1,500-Rp 2,500 per kilogram due to their lack of knowledge about the market price for coffee. "People were reluctant to cultivate coffee because the price is low. Coffee was planted only to mark the border of their gardens or as a fence. Growing coffee as a crop had become unprofitable," said Uloh Sutarman, 45, a farmer in Cikajang.

Uloh then studied the supply chain for coffee, which passed through several levels of middlemen before it reached consumers. He was assisted by Dedi Affandi, 46, an architect who returned to his hometown from Jakarta, seeking a peaceful life.

The two men are the co-founders of the Karya Mandiri Cooperative, which was established in 2013 to transfer knowledge about coffee. The cooperative aims to free farmers from the control of the middlemen, who often tricked the farmers into selling their coffee at very low prices. The cooperative can offer higher prices because they have better access to market information.

Slowly but surely, coffee has become a prima donna crop. The price of raw coffee beans gradually rose to Rp 7,500-Rp 8,000 per kilogram. The farmers who once opposed the cooperative’s establishment have become loyal members, numbering 232 farmers with a combined plantation area of 119 hectares. Coffee is no longer used as a natural garden fence. It is now a profitable commodity.

Moses Jigibalom, a farmer’s son in Tiom Village in the Lanny Jaya Mountains of Papua, has the same courage. Along with his father, Moses also tried to free themselves from the power of the middlemen by building their own processing facility.

The coffee fruit is peeled by hand, washed and then dried before the beans are roasted in a ceramic pot. The technique is completely traditional, natural and truly unique. Moses also opened a small shop in Pasar Tiom, where he sells up to 200 cups of coffee a day.

Forgotten

However, the community coffee plantation in Wonosalam of Jombang regency, East Java, remains forgotten. Many farmers are still powerless to free themselves from the middlemen’s trap. Roasted Arabica coffee beans sell for only Rp 26,000 per kilogram, less than half of the market price of roasted beans in Surabaya.

The farmers make a minimal income and are unable to meet their basic needs. The ties between the farmers and middlemen are difficult to break, as most farmers rely financially on the middlemen.

Coffee and Cacao Research Center (Puslitkoka) head Misnawi said that it was difficult for the farmers to earn a good income from their coffee plantation with limited land, and because of the middlemen who controlled them and also provided loans.

Misnawi said that coffee farmers should be empowered by establishing an agronomy center where they could learn how to process coffee beans into value-added products, which would have higher prices and a wider market.

(CORNELIUS HELMY, IRMA TAMBUNAN, NIKSON SINAGA, ZULKARNAINI MASRY)