Coffee Council is Expected to Bridge Coffee-World Farmers

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Chairman of the MPR RI Zulkifli Hasan hope Coffee Council of Indonesia (Dekopi) can be a bridge to improve the welfare of Indonesian coffee farmers.

"I congratulate on the formation of Dekopi, hopefully it can be a bridge between farmers, the business world and the government," said Chairman of the MPR, Zulkifli Hasan on the "National Coffee Day and Coffee Council Board (Dekopi)" in Intermark, Kota Tangerang Selatan, Sunday (11/3/2018).

At the event, the declaration was announced and proposed the establishment of the National Coffee Day as well as the Pledge of the Board of Coffee Council of Indonesia, chaired by the chairman of Dekopi Anton Apriantono.

The Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman and the managers of the Association of Indonesian Coffee attend the event.

According to Zulkifli, Indonesia has an international comparative advantage for plantation products, such as coffee, pepper, and cloves.

"Indonesia is a big country and is located in equatorial area, so Indonesia has very wide plantation area and best quality of crop," he said.

On the occasion, Zulkifli also recounted his past in Lampung, who grew up in a family of plantation farmers.

His parents are coffee and clove farmers and the time the children have been the result of coffee plantations.

"My high school time moved from Lampung to Jakarta, also not out of the intention for the coffee business," he told the media crew.

Zulkifli saw coffee plantations in Indonesia decreased, due to the large number of plantation land that changed function into rice fields or settlements.

Even today, he said, Indonesian coffee began to compete with the production of coffee from Vietnam.

Zulkifli hopes, Dekopi can use its access to contribute to improve the welfare of coffee farmers.