Coming Home for Tiom Coffee

KOMPAS/DANU KUSWORO

Moses Jigibalom

Filial duties are like a magnet for Moses Jigibalom, 25. After seven years since leaving his village to pursue his university studis in Java, his father called him and asked him to come home. Moses was unable to refuse to return to his village in a rural area in Papua.

His T-shirt printing business (sablon) in the city of Malang, East Java, was flourishing at that time. This business covered his financial shortfall during his university years. He had even planned to open branches in other areas after he graduated. However, his father’s call was always on his mind.

Moses finally decided to go back home in June 2017. “Teteh (father) is retired. Mama is old too. They need me," he said during a meeting in March at his coffee plantation, which is located atop a hill in the hinterlands of Bokon village in Tiom district, Lanny Jaya regency, Papua.

Moses realized that going home meant he would continue his parents’ farm. His father, Piet Jigibalom, is a coffee farmer with a plantation of about a hectare.

However, due to good care, the coffee plants grew very well. After joining the coffee planting pilot program initiated by the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) nearly 30 years ago, his father became the only successful local coffee farmer.

While other coffee plantations in the area were abandoned because farmers were interested in planting petatas (sweet potato), Piet persisted with coffee. “The coffee we produce is extraordinary. The fruit is really good,” said Moses, repeating his father\'s words.

When Moses was a teenager, Piet often took him to the farm to tend to the coffee plants. His father always insisted that pruning was important to ensure that each branch would produce many fruits. Moses was also taught the correct way to harvest, picking the cherries when they were red. He also learned about post-harvest processing, from skinning to drying and sorting, and to grinding the coffee beans. All the knowledge his father had obtained from his mentor at the BPPT was passed down to the young Moses.

His father\'s belief in coffee eventually brought Moses back to his village. He handed his T-shirt printing business to a friend and returned to Tiom, bringing a coffee grinder. The machine that was purchased in Malang would be used to realize his dream of owning a coffee shop.

DANIAL ADE KURNIAWAN

Moses Jigibalom

Promoting the coffee

Moses intended to promote coffee, and not just rely on it as a source of livelihood for his family. He was determined to turn the coffee plantation into an economic backbone for the local community. The area has great potential for cultivating coffee. However, many coffee plantations were abandoned. The plants grew out of control, soaring high because the branches were not pruned. The fruits were small and rarely harvested. The coffee fruit was wasted.

Moses went to the coffee plantation owners to encourage the farmers to start tending the coffee plants again. He also offered to help them harvest the coffee. "If kakak [brother] is unwilling to harvest the coffee, just call me. I will come later to harvest the coffee," he said.

Moses realized that many farmers had abandoned their coffee plantations not because they were lazy, but because the income was not proportional to the cost of farming coffee. The price of coffee was too low. The market price per kilogram for raw coffee beans was only Rp 15,000. In fact, if the coffee was processed into green beans, it could fetch Rp 120,000 per kilogram at a market in Jayapura. If the coffee was roasted and ground, the price would be even higher, almost double the price of green beans.

Seeing the situation, Moses was determined to process his own coffee from upstream to downstream, from the red fruits to green beans and then to ground coffee.

Sharing tasks

Moses split up the work with his father. Piet took care of the plantation, while Moses worked on the coffee. The coffee they harvested is peeled using traditional methods. "Not using a machine. Just like that," he said as his hands deftly peeled the skin of the fruit.

After they are peeled, the raw beans are washed in water that comes from the nearest spring. Once dried, the beans are pounded with a pestle, locally called toki-toki. The beans are then sorted with winnowing trays. This way, the good beans are separated from the husks.

In addition to processing the harvest from his own plantation, Moses also received coffee from the other farmers in the village. He bought the harvested fruit for Rp 30,000 per kilogram, much higher than the market price of Rp 25,000.

When he had accumulated the other farmers’s harvest, Moses became overwhelmed. The production of ground coffee powder was high, while buyers were limited. His father often helped market the coffee powder to the local government offices in Lanny Jaya.

Instead of buying the coffee, the local officials asked for free samples. In the end, Moses had given out dozens of packets of coffee powder without any gains. Realizing that the door-to-door marketing was not optimal, Moses became finally determined to open his own business. He opened a simple coffee shop in Pasar Tiom in August 2017. The wooden stall stands between other stalls selling food or clothing and betel and areca nut traders.

However, when the coffee shop first opened its doors, the results were surprising. In a one day, he sold over 100 glasses of his Arabica coffee, even though the price of his coffee was more expensive than instant coffee. In order to match the palate of local coffee enthusiasts, Moses did not roast the green beans too dark. He tried several times and found that a medium roast strengthened the aroma of Arabica coffee and produced a sweet flavor.

However, compared to this mild flavor, the people preferred “thick” coffee. "If it is thick, the coffee is stronger," he said. Tales of Moses’s dedication to nursing and developing coffee in Tiom began to make the rounds. A number of shopkeepers became interested, and bought coffee beans from Moses. The market opportunity became wide open.

Moses now supplies his coffee to stores in Jayapura and Timika. Moses believes that coffee could become the mainstay of the farmers in Lanny Jaya regency. It is not an overstatement to say that the area is a paradise nestled amid the mountain range, a secluded place for coffee to grow. However, without persistence, coffee will remain neglected. "If the farmers want to be successful, they should be persistent in taking care of the coffee plants. That’s all,” he said.

DANIAL ADE KURNIAWAN

Moses Jigibalom

Born: Lanny Jaya, Apr. 24, 1993

Children: Musa

Education: Public Administration, Pasundan University (2010); Exchange student to the Public Administration Department at the Social and Political Sciences Institute, Waskita Darma, Malang (graduated 2016).