Suryono, Digitalizing Kayu Aro Coffee

KOMPAS/NINUK MARDIANA PAMBUDY (N

Suryono

At the foot of Mount Kerinci at an altitude of 1,600 meters, coffee farmers in Kayu Aro, Jambi, can be proud of themselves. Their Arabica coffee has earned recognition of geographic indication, meaning that it has typical characteristics of the region. The coffee produced by the Korintji Natural Farmers Community or Alko has thus secured buyers in Japan, Europe and the United States.

Five young people from Kayu Aro district, Kerinci regency, have initiated a change in the behavior of coffee farmers there. They were troubled to see farmers collecting wood from the forest of Kerinci Seblat National Park, not far from their village. Suryono invited his four friends, Erna, Nopal, Kelik and Hendra, a lecturer at Padang State University, in 2014 to think of ways of asking farmers to discontinue gathering wood from the national park.

Suryono began by inquiring farmers, why they were felling trees in the protected forest. As expected, their motivation was an economic factor. The production of their coffee plants was low, only one tonne per hectare every year. The coffee price was set by middlemen from Medan with no knowledge of its final price.

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For Suryono, the only way to prevent local people from felling trees was to increase their income. He noted the residents’ aspirations and the views of his peers. “Erna wanted to develop tourism because she had once worked in this field. As she was the only one who spoke English at the time, I asked her to find an overseas market. Nopal wished to be engaged in coffee production, Kelik in coffee processing and Hendra would handle the economic analysis,” said Suryono, who was in charge of institutional promotions by developing farmer and marketing groups.

The written notes produced a proposal of almost 200 pages and he sent it to a United States donor for green activities. “We acquired the donation, but it could not be disbursed because we had no organization to manage it,” added Suryono.

Finally, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia provided guidance for the activities of Suryono and peers to invite Kayu Aro residents as descendants of transmigrants from Java to grow coffee and cultivate quality seedlings.

Blockchain ecosystem

His daily experience in dealing with coffee farmers as well as his communication with his father, a coffee broker, were reflected in Suryono’s decision. The honorable solution to the residents’ welfare and environmental issues were to be achieved through a cooperative.

The Farmers’ Arabica Cooperative now has five business units. PT Alko Sumatera International operates in export-quality coffee processing and sales, UD Bank Sampah is engaged in waste management, Alko Akademi executes the cooperative’s social responsibility for increasing the knowledge of Kayu Aro coffee farmers and youths to become coffee bean and beverage entrepreneurs and CV Famili Kayu Aro is involved in tourism by offering accommodation and local tourist spots in Kayu Aro. Meanwhile, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) fostering unit initiates the opening of cafes and coffee bean shops, which are now scattered over 12 provinces. Suryono himself is now the CEO of PT Alko Sumatera International.

Through the cooperative, Suryono built the ecosystem of Kayu Aro coffee, covering farmers, middlemen, the cooperative and coffee roasters as final buyers. He did not remove the links in the existing chain, but arranged it so that each link would be aware of the price and why it was formed, also how much was to be shared by each one. Even the nongovernmental organizations issuing green certificates were included in the ecosystem and the fees they charged.

KOMPAS/YUNIADHI AGUNG (MYE)

Coffee Illustration

Suryono was convinced this method guaranteed fair trade. In 2017, he made an application for mobile phones to inform the price of coffee, but it failed to meet expectations. Last year, he got acquainted with a technological startup company from Japan that was impressed by the coffee community ecosystem Suryono created. The company then made a blockchain system on the condition that the system would be a show window of the company.

“With the blockchain completed in March 2022, farmers are aware of the price received in each link,” said Suryono in Jakarta. He went to Jakarta on Friday (2/12/2022) to ensure funding from a state-owned trading enterprise as he wanted to increase exports to Japan. “We are requesting a patent for this ecosystem model from the Law and Human Rights Ministry,” he revealed.

The activities initiated by Suryono and his peers have been fruitful. The farmers’ community set up in 2016 with 400 families has now listed 800 families as members. Their average annual production reached two tonnes per hectare. Indeed, there are still tree-felling farmers but they are not members of the Farmers’ Arabica Cooperative. Coffee farmers in Kayu Aro are split into three districts, which are Kayu Aro, West Kayu Aro and Gunung Tujuh, totaling 2,500 families.

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The business units under the cooperative keep growing. The tourism unit is developing accommodation for tourists by using residents’ homes and building special lodgings.

Alko Akademi continues to train farmers’ children wishing to deepen their knowledge of coffee cultivation, processing and even to become baristas. Responding to coffee farmers’ need for the education of their children, Akademi provides scholarships for them to study at state and private colleges in Java.

Akademi also organizes Kayu Ara coffee orientation training for foreign buyers as partners. Every training session has room for 10 people at a cost of US$15,000 per class.

The MSMEs fostering unit promotes coffee bean production activities and cafes, partly with the funding aid of the cooperative.

PT Alko prioritizes foreign markets and major manufacturing industries to guarantee the continuity of orders and favorable prices. Suryono, who studied in elementary school and junior high school, followed by a Package C informal education and Tarbiyah (Educational Science) College in his city, aspires to develop millennial farmers.

“I’m convinced that building Indonesia is by building its agriculture. It means that there must be young farmers, millennial farmers. For this purpose, attractive and profitable business activities are needed from upstream to downstream,” he pointed out.

Suryono

Born: Kayu Aro, Jambi; 16 March 1983

Wife: Eva Marlina

Children: Three Education: Package C (senior high school equivalent) and Tarbiyah (Educational Science) College

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.